The presidents of Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador, all of them right-wing, have congratulated the winner of the first round of the Colombian presidential elections, the far-right Abelardo de la Espriella, who will contest access to the Casa de Nariño against the leftist Iván Cepeda after nearly reaching 44% of the votes.
Through a message on social media, José Antonio Kast addressed the Colombian electoral day, congratulating De la Espriella “for his great victory.”
“I wish him the greatest success in the second round,” the Chilean leader emphasized, highlighting that “a freer and safer Colombia,” as he believes the first-round winner would bring, “is good news for the entire region.”
For his part, Javier Milei also wanted to congratulate both De la Espriella and the Colombians for an “exemplary electoral day” and estimated that the result “reflects the longing for freedom and progress of the Colombian people.”
Specifically, he highlighted Cepeda’s defeat as “an explicit will to say enough to the failed socialist model that has done so much harm” to Latin America and “to Colombia especially in the last four years.”
“If this result is repeated in the second round, I have no doubt that Colombia will rejoin the concert of free nations and will resume a course oriented towards the defense of life, liberty, and property,” the libertarian leader concluded.
Also congratulating the now main candidate for the Casa de Nariño was the Ecuadorian president, who praised De la Espriella’s victory as “a great victory”. “Success in the second round. The Colombian people need real change,” Noboa declared.
However, he also had words for the outgoing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who has stated that he does not accept the preliminary electoral count results that give the initial victory to the candidate of the Defenders of the Homeland movement, and for the Historical Pact candidate, Iván Cepeda, who has called for clarification of an alleged “electoral discrepancy.”
“Unfortunately, being a sore loser is contagious,” Noboa challenged him, attributing the stance of the Colombian Historical Pact politicians to the fact that former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa “managed to infect others in the region.”
Joining Milei, Kast, and Noboa was the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, although he did not show support for any of the candidates, whom he congratulated without naming or distinguishing them while appreciating “the civic participation during the electoral day.”
Likewise, and without explicitly referring to the complaints of Petro and Cepeda, the Dominican leader defended that the “legitimacy of any democracy rests on respect for the sovereign will of the citizens expressed at the polls and in the decisions of the competent electoral authorities.” “That principle must be preserved and strengthened at all times,” he argued.
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