Colombia has spoken, and the message is clear — security, economic stability and rule of law won out over four more years of failed leftist experimentation. De la Espriella's victory ends an era of Petro's Total Peace strategy that emboldened armed groups and rattled investors. A new chapter begins August 7.
De la Espriella's razor-thin win is shadowed by serious legitimacy questions, given the National Registry's scandal-plagued history and documented election-day irregularities in his own home base of Barranquilla. A candidate who threatened to arrest political opponents and faced judicial harassment allegations from over 150 journalists is no champion of democracy.
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