BOGOTÁ, Colombia — María Susana Muhamad said on Monday that some Colombians were gripped by fear after the deeply polarized presidential runoff election on Sunday.
Muhamad, a prominent member of the left-wing Historic Pact political party, served as the country’s environmental minister from 2022 to 2025.
After the national registry published the preliminary vote count, Abelardo De la Espriella claimed victory on Sunday night in Barranquilla.
“A lot of people in Colombia are very scared with this new government,” said Muhamad, 49, who stands behind De la Espriella’s rival Iván Cepeda, who had not conceded on Monday.
De La Espriella, who campaigned as “El Tigre,” planned to restart oil exploration and allow fracking, which alarmed environmentalists in Colombia.
“I hope it will not become a government of retaliation towards people who have been moving another different type of agenda,” said Muhamad, whose paternal grandfather was Palestinian.
De la Espriella, a law-and-order candidate who supports Israel, also pledged to end peace talks to disarm armed groups and vowed to build mega prisons for narco terrorists.
“From this moment on, the election campaign ends—as do the slogans, the divisions, and the political confrontations — and the supreme hour of service to the nation begins,“ De La Espriella said during his victory speech at the Ventana al Mundo monument.
During a news conference on Monday in Bogotá, Cepeda said that “once all the claims” have been verified and “all the doubts” have been resolved, he will announce his recognition of the election results.
Cepeda, who has served in the Colombian Senate since 2014, said he wasn’t going anywhere after acknowledging that De la Espriella sent him a message: “Pack your bags!”
Although De la Espriella also promised to cut welfare spending, some Venezuelan migrants said they breathed a sigh of relief because the left’s push for constitutional changes to bypass the legislature felt like déjà vu.
Sergio Guzmán, the co-founder and director of Colombia Risk Analysis, described the political environment as highly flammable.
“I think Colombia is in a bed of dry tinder,” said Guzmán, who keeps a portrait of slain Colombian political satirist Jaime Garzón in his office.
After winning just about 250,830 more votes than Cepeda, De la Espriella also vowed to be a president to “all Colombians.” Cepeda and President Gustavo Petro aren’t convinced.
“Petro will try to inflame social unrest against De La Espriella,” Guzmán said.
Petro’s term ends on Aug. 7, when De la Espriella, who had the endorsement of U.S. President Donald Trump, expects to be sworn in to become Colombia’s 48th president.
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Torres contributed to this report from Miami.
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