Trump admirer’s surprise first-round win is a blow to Colombia’s traditional conservatives

Both analysts described the lawyer’s first-round victory as “surprising” and believe the left faces a difficult, though not impossible, task in overturning the result before the runoff on 21 June. Second-place candidates have come back to win in 1998 and 2014.

A soldier stands guard at a polling station in Cúcuta, a city on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. A resurgence of violence has been an issue in the presidential election. Photograph: Lucas Molet/Reuters

De la Espriella and Cepeda offer completely opposing approaches to dealing with the resurgence of violence, now at its highest levels since the landmark 2016 peace agreement between the government and most of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

The lawyer advocates military alliances with the US and Israel, total confrontation with criminal groups and the construction of mega-prisons. The senator supports Petro’s “total peace” strategy of negotiating the dismantling of all criminal groups.

On Monday morning, Cepeda challenged De la Espriella to a debate. In his speech on Sunday night, he had described his rival as a “misogynist”, “homophobe” and “lawyer for paramilitaries and drug traffickers”. De la Espriella called his opponent and Petro “a pair of delinquents” and “miserable criminals” and attacked the president as a “miserable drug addict”.

Petro sparked controversy by refusing to recognise the preliminary results released by the National Civil Registry, the independent public body responsible for organising elections, alleging without evidence that the count included “800,000 additional people”.

Guevara described the allegations – later echoed by Cepeda in his speech – as “not healthy” for Colombian democracy.

She added: “It also seemed misguided that Cepeda’s first reaction was to focus on that issue rather than speaking directly to his supporters and potential supporters about the way forward … it gives ammunition to those who want to equate De la Espriella and Cepeda, when in reality they represent completely different styles of leadership.”