US President Donald Trump announced that he is giving his “full and unconditional support“ to Abelardo de la Espriella, a representative of the hard right and an admirer of the American leader, who qualified for the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia, world agencies reported. The second round will be on June 21, BTA reported.
On his social network Truth Social, Trump wrote that he sees in Abelardo de la Espriella a “smart, strong and tough leader“ who will “stop illegal immigration“ and “restore order“.
“Because of his enormous successes in life and his political support for me personally, "It is an honor to give him my full and unconditional support," he added.
Abelardo de la Espriella, a millionaire lawyer with no previous political experience, immediately welcomed the support and promised to build a relationship with the United States "like never before."
"The United States plays a crucial role in the fight against crime and narcoterrorism," the candidate said in an interview with the magazine "Semana," thanking Trump for his support.
He surprisingly won the first round of Sunday's election with more than 43% of the vote against 41% for the frontrunner, left-wing senator Ivan Cepeda.
A fan of Donald Trump, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Argentine President Javier Milley, the businessman promises "death or prison" for members of the criminal gangs. organizations.
“As president, Abelardo will achieve extraordinary successes in developing the economy, creating jobs, promoting trade, stopping illegal immigration, fighting crime and drugs, and restoring order“, Trump predicted, calling Cepeda, who is the political successor to the incumbent leftist President Gustavo Petro, a “far-left Marxist“.
At the same time, the Colombian judiciary ordered Abelardo de la Espriella to publicly apologize for sexist statements made during an interview, Agence France-Presse reported.
In a radio broadcast on May 12, De la Espriella showed an intimate photo of himself on his mobile phone and said that he had received the support of the female electorate thanks to it“, the court ruling, issued after a complaint by a citizen, said. He “then insisted that a journalist present look the photo and comment on it. “It was a complete lack of respect for me and my work. I felt hurt, harassed and disgusted“, the journalist in Aix later wrote.
De la Espriella apologized, but noted that he thought it was “a joke“. The court rejected these apologies and insisted on a more substantive one, emphasizing that the message the presidential candidate had conveyed was that women “can be politically influenced through the sexual attractiveness“ of a male contender.