{"id":56812,"date":"2026-06-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=56812"},"modified":"2026-06-02T22:27:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:27:37","slug":"politics-shaken-it-is-time-to-think-about-a-country-for-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/politics-shaken-it-is-time-to-think-about-a-country-for-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics shaken, it is time to think about a country for everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The shockwave produced by the first round of the presidential election was seismic. There was not a single political assumption left unquestioned. The message to the government of Gustavo Petro was clear: its blatant intervention in the campaign came at a high cost to candidate Iv\u00e1n Cepeda. Likewise, the once kingmaker \u00c1lvaro Uribe V\u00e9lez saw the right abandon his party\u2019s candidate, Paloma Valencia, in order to support a new right-wing movement that has positioned itself as independent. Abelardo de la Espriella, virtually unknown to most Colombians just a few months ago, now has every chance of becoming Colombia\u2019s next president, while Senator Iv\u00e1n Cepeda secured a historic vote tally that nevertheless feels like a defeat for the left. The political center, which placed its hopes on moderation, discovered its irrelevance at the ballot box and is now licking its wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Cepeda ran a campaign that even aspired to win outright in the first round. The Pacto Hist\u00f3rico, emboldened by its outstanding results in the congressional elections and the rise in President Gustavo Petro\u2019s popularity, carried out a campaign aimed almost exclusively at its base. Skipping debates, the scarcely concealed intervention of the Casa de Nari\u00f1o in favor of the senator, and the attitude of its political leaders all spoke with the arrogance of an overwhelming victory already secured. Curiously, they misread the country. They failed to realize that while their base was enthusiastic, a large share of the country\u2014now approaching a majority\u2014resents the way the president has governed and conducted politics over the past four years. Despite a fragmented opposition lacking prominent figures, the ballot box delivered a clear rebuke to the Petro administration and to a Cepeda campaign that made little effort to broaden its tent. They felt like winners; today they find themselves backed into a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the other side, the right abandoned Senator Valencia and Uribismo. Faced with division caused by Abelardo de la Espriella\u2019s candidacy, Valencia\u2019s campaign bet on a strategy of \u201cstrategic voting\u201d against Senator Cepeda. And indeed, there was strategic voting\u2014but in favor of the lawyer. With a discourse that echoes a blend of Nayib Bukele, Javier Milei, and Donald Trump, De la Espriella has convinced millions of Colombians. He positioned himself as someone outside traditional politics, a person with no interests other than to \u201cset the country back on course.\u201d In a nation where security is one of the main public concerns, rejection of President Petro and promises of a tough-handed approach resonated deeply. De la Espriella\u2019s vote total, also historic, mirrors what has occurred in other countries where emotion outweighed concrete policy proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombia therefore remains polarized. We saw this coming years ago. Both candidates carry significant debts to the electorate ahead of the runoff. Will we finally have a debate in which their visions for the country\u2019s future are genuinely contrasted? Will they provide more details about how they intend to implement the vague proposals that propelled them to such large vote totals? Both must recognize that the election was close and will remain so. This is not the time to continue fueling the extremes, but rather to demonstrate that they are capable of leading, each from their own perspective, a country in which everyone has a place. How will they speak to more moderate voters? How will they calm tensions? Is it possible? Or are we condemned to resentful voting and rhetorical hostility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, however, reasons for pride. Colombian voter turnout was massive. As this edition went to press, we did not yet have a final figure, but it is clear that differences of opinion are increasingly finding their catharsis at the ballot box. As they should. Our democracy is showing signs of maturity, even if it is not immune to the familiar ailments that have taken a toll on other countries. It must continue to be defended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This text was originally published in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador.<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The shockwave produced by the first round of the presidential election was seismic. There was not a single political assumption left unquestioned. The message to the government of Gustavo Petro was clear: its blatant intervention in the campaign came at a high cost to candidate Iv\u00e1n Cepeda. Likewise, the once kingmaker \u00c1lvaro Uribe V\u00e9lez saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":867,"featured_media":56780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16818,16806],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":["post-56812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-elecciones-en","category-colombia-en","tag-debates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56814,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56812\/revisions\/56814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56812"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=56812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}