Colombia’s presidential candidate for the ruling Pacto Histórico, Iván Cepeda, warned Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for far-right presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella is “interventionist.”

“The open support, and I would say with an interventionist tint, that President Donald Trump gives to Abelardo de la Espriella’s candidacy (…) is a serious risk for the sovereignty and integrity of the Colombian people and nation,” Cepeda said in Bogotá.

In that regard, Cepeda criticized the political stance of the candidate he will face in the second-round runoff, who even before Trump spoke out had called for intervention in the election.

Trump made public his support for De la Espriella on Monday, describing him as an “intelligent, strong, and determined” leader fighting for his country and assuring that if he reaches the presidency, he would boost economic growth, job creation, trade, the fight against crime and drug trafficking, as well as the restoration of “law and order.”

Cepeda asserted that his team’s proposal is respect for life, while reiterating that Abelardo de la Espriella “represents a serious risk to democracy.”

“Any president on the planet or in our hemisphere may have preferences for one or another political option being debated in Colombia, but what cannot happen is that Mr. De la Espriella takes stateless actions to seek that through the intervention of foreign presidents and governments we define our electoral contest,” Cepeda added.

De la Espriella thanked Trump for the message, stating that “the United States and Colombia are sister nations, united by the blood of heroes and by the common destiny of defending Western civilization in these lands of the Americas. Together we are indestructible.”

Cepeda has argued that De la Espriella is an ally of paramilitarism in Colombia.

For her part, Valle representative Ana Erazo specified: “Who would have imagined that the president of the United States who most attacked Latinos, who turned ICE into a symbol of persecution and harassment against migrant communities, who blackmailed governments around the world and assumed the role of neighborhood bully through the imposition of tariffs and economic pressures, would end up today as the political ally of a U.S. citizen aspiring to Colombia’s presidency?”

“It is evident that this man, accompanied by his foreign advisors and a carefully designed strategy, is a prefabricated, artificial, fake, plastic product built for political marketing rather than to respond to the country’s real needs,” she said.

She also stated that “behind that packaged image is a vision of the country that, far from strengthening our sovereignty, is more interested in putting Colombia at the service of interests foreign to those of the majority of Colombians.”

Likewise, she stressed that Colombia deserves authentic leadership with its own criteria “that defends our sovereignty and our interests.”

De la Espriella has said that “it is essential to understand that the United States of North America is decisive for combating crime, narco-terrorism, and to finally liberate Colombia from so much pain and so much violence.”

De la Espriella became a U.S. citizen in February 2023, after having lived and worked in that country for several years. He has financed Republican Party campaigns.

The Colombian platform La Silla Vacía reported that of the $95,000 the candidate has contributed since 2018 to campaigns of Donald Trump’s party, $92,000 have gone directly to Republican María Elvira Salazar.

Despite cordial relations with President Gustavo Petro after a visit, the United States keeps him on the Clinton List, which imposes financial sanctions for alleged ties to drug trafficking and which in this case is used as a political punishment.

Trump has supported right-wing and far-right Latin American presidents, including Javier Milei (Argentina), Nasry Asfura (Honduras), and Daniel Noboa (Ecuador).

The first round of Colombia’s presidential election took place on May 31. Abelardo de la Espriella came in first with 10,361,499 votes (43.74 percent), while Pacto Histórico candidate Iván Cepeda received 9,688,361 votes (40.90 percent), the highest figure ever achieved by the left in a first-round election in Colombia.