Three main Colombian presidential candidates close campaigns one week before first round
The three main candidates: Paloma Valencia (Centro Democrático), Abelardo de la Espriella (Defensores de la Patria), and Iván Cepeda (Pacto Histórico) close campaigns in Colombia
The three main contenders to succeed President Gustavo Petro on Sunday closed their campaigns with massive political rallies in different cities across the country, one week before the first round of the presidential elections of 31 May. Leftist senator Iván Cepeda, of the ruling Pacto Histórico; far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria movement; and right-wing senator Paloma Valencia, of the Centro Democrático, lead the polls, while around 10% of the electorate remains undecided one week before the vote. The eventual runoff is scheduled for 21 June.
Cepeda closed his campaign on Par Vial, one of the main avenues of the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, where he appeared before tens of thousands of supporters carrying flags of the Pacto Histórico and Colombia. I close my campaign here with joy, as I am a son of the Caribbean through my maternal roots and my Lebanese ancestors, said the ruling-coalition candidate, who leads the polls. In his speech, he labeled his rival De la Espriella a fascist option and promised a second progressive government centered on social justice and equity, with priority for the excluded, forgotten, or discarded sectors.
De la Espriella, nicknamed El Tigre and known for his leap from criminal law practice to the political front line, closed his campaign at the former bullring La Macarena in Medellín, in the department of Antioquia. The event was attended by dozens of veterans of the security forces, alongside whom he recited the Oración Patria, a civic poem traditionally tied to the military sphere. The candidate delivered his speech from behind bulletproof glass, as he has done at all his public events for security reasons. The pack awoke, triumphed, and roared like never before in the history of the homeland, he said, in reference to his movement.
Valencia, candidate of the uribista Centro Democrático, closed her campaign at the Movistar Arena coliseum in Bogotá before thousands of attendees and alongside her under-age daughter. For them we want a safe Colombia, an equitable Colombia, with opportunities for all, she said. The senator was chosen as presidential candidate in the Gran Consulta por Colombia held last March, in which she competed with former ministers Mauricio Cárdenas, David Luna, and Juan Carlos Pinzón, former mayors Enrique Peñalosa and Aníbal Gaviria, and former senator Juan Manuel Galán. Former president César Gaviria (1990-1994), former vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez, and other establishment political figures attended the Bogotá rally.
At Valencia’s closing event, María Claudia Tarazona, widow of senator and presidential precandidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, who was killed on 11 August 2025 two months after being seriously wounded in an attack at a public event in Bogotá, also took the stage. Paloma Valencia did not appear fifteen minutes ago. She is a prepared woman, who knows the country, understands its difficulties, and knows how to resolve them. There is no time to improvise, Tarazona said in support of the uribista candidate. The Colombian electoral campaign has unfolded amid marked security tensions and in parallel with the two federal investigations opened in the United States against Petro over alleged links to drug trafficking.