Colombia’s first-round presidential election, won by tough-talking conservative Abelardo de la Espriella, signaled what analysts describe as a growing backlash across Latin America against leftist governments.

The presidential election could carry significant implications for U.S. interests in the region, including drug trafficking, migration and regional stability, as voters increasingly prioritize security, counternarcotics policies and economic stability ahead of a June 21 runoff between de la Espriella and leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda.

"For the Trump administration, a Colombia that recommits itself to security cooperation, counternarcotics efforts, and stronger democratic institutions would be a major win and an important step forward towards restoring stability across the Western Hemisphere," Melissa Ford Maldonado of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) told Fox News Digital from Colombia.

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"What happens in Colombia affects the flow of drugs into American communities, the strength of transnational criminal networks, migration pressures and the broader balance between democratic governments and criminalized regimes throughout the region," she added.

The first-round winner, de la Espriella, a conservative lawyer and political outsider known as "El Tigre" ("The Tiger"), has emerged as the face of Colombia's security-focused shift. 

An admirer of President Donald Trump and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, won 43.7% of the vote Sunday, outperforming most polls and advancing to a runoff against left-wing Cepeda, the candidate backed by President Gustavo Petro. 

His campaign has centered on a hardline crackdown on criminal organizations, which he argues have flourished under Petro's "Total Peace" policy.

In an interview with the Associated Press, de la Espriella pledged to open mega-prisons and take a far more aggressive approach toward criminal groups. "Criminals will either surrender or leave the country," he said.

The vote comes as Colombia faces rising violence, expanding criminal organizations and growing criticism of President Gustavo Petro’s "Total Peace" strategy, which sought negotiations with armed groups and criminal networks.

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"Colombia heads into a June 21 runoff with armed groups controlling vast stretches of the country, a failed ‘Total Peace’ negotiating strategy leaving communities more exposed than when it began, and a Venezuelan refugee crisis that has overwhelmed the state's already thin capacity to govern its own territory," Daniel Swift, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News Digital.

Maldonado said Colombia’s election reflects a wider political shift taking place across Latin America.

"This election is part of a broader trend across Latin America, where voters are increasingly rejecting the failed promises of the left in favor of security, sovereignty and economic opportunity," she said.

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"We’ve seen it in Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Costa Rica and now increasingly in Colombia."

Swift agreed the election results reflect a broader regional trend.

He said with de la Espriella outperforming "every poll, with security at the top of every voter's mind — confirms that Colombia is part of a broader regional reckoning: Latin Americans are losing patience with governments that cannot provide security," Swift said.

Maldonado said the results reflected mounting frustration with the country’s direction under Petro.

"Years of growing insecurity, rising coca cultivation, expanding criminal organizations, and concessions to armed groups have left many Colombian people frustrated with the direction of the country," she added.

The June 21 runoff is expected to focus heavily on security policy, organized crime and Colombia’s future relationship with the United States under the Trump administration. Maldonado argues it "offers Colombia an opportunity to begin reversing course and reestablish a principle that should have never been up for debate: criminal organizations should be confronted, not negotiated with."

A hardline, law-and-order candidate who promises to dismantle drug cartels and reset Colombia’s security doctrine is gaining traction with voters as Colombians vote in Sunday's presidential election.

As the world’s largest cocaine producer and a long-standing U.S. security partner, Colombia’s internal policies directly affect narcotics flows, migration dynamics and regional stability.

Analysts believe a shift in Bogotá’s leadership could reshape cooperation with Washington on drug interdiction, intelligence sharing and counter-cartel operations — issues that remain central to U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

Abelardo De La Espriella, a businessman and successful defense attorney, has emerged as a leading candidate on the right with a platform focused on aggressive counternarcotics enforcement, institutional reform and a decisive break from current leftist President Gustavo Petro’s negotiation-based approach with armed rebel groups. 

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The 47-year-old, nicknamed ‘The Tiger,' recently told the Associated Press, "The only peace process I believe in is one imposed by the force of arms and the laws of the republic. Under my government, any bandit who resists will be eliminated as appropriate, and if he submits, we will imprison him in a mega prison so he can pay his debt to justice as they should."

His rise mirrors a regional pattern seen with leaders like Javier Milei, Nayib Bukele and José Antonio Kast figures who have built political momentum around security-first agendas and voter frustration with crime and economic instability.

According to an Associated Press report, polls say De La Espriella is likely to fight it out with leftist candidate Iván Cepeda, who is from the same party as President Gustavo Petro, and center-right candidate Paloma Valencia. There are 14 candidates on the ballot.

Valencia’s campaign is backed by most of the nation’s traditional parties and by economists who are concerned about the growing levels of debt under the Petro administration and want Colombia to return to more orthodox policies, the Associated Press reported.

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Valencia told Fox News Digital, "As president of Colombia, we will restore a strategic, close, and trustworthy relationship with the United States, based on mutual respect and the defense of our national interests. We will strengthen cooperation in security, intelligence, military training, and the fight against transnational crime; areas in which the alliance between our two countries has been essential to Colombia’s stability. We will also work to ensure that Colombia plays an active role in the Shield of the Americas and contributes to regional leadership in defense and security. "

She added, "The United States will continue to be a key partner for economic growth, investment, and job creation, as well as a vital ally for the millions of Colombians who live there. Colombia will also stand alongside the United States in defending freedom and democracy across the hemisphere, supporting efforts to restore liberty in Cuba and to help Venezuela return to a democratic path. Our relationship will be defined by trust, cooperation, and the pursuit of tangible benefits for Colombia and its citizens."

Critics say leftist candidate Iván Cepeda, represents a continuation and potential expansion of the leftist policies associated with Petro. Cepeda supports dialogue with armed groups, rural reform and a reform of Colombia’s traditional security framework, placing greater emphasis on social investment.

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Camilo Guzmán, executive director of Libertank, told Fox News Digital that Sunday’s election will likely result in a runoff between Cepeda and De La Espriella. "Abelardo earned that ticket by reading the room better than anyone else in the opposition. He offered catharsis, speaking directly to Colombian voters' indignation toward the traditional political class and the establishment. 

"Where center-right Senator Paloma Valencia offered competence and continuity with the Uribe tradition, he said, De La Espriella’s message "is built on a hard line on security," Guzman added. "Ending Petro's failed ‘total peace’ policy that emboldened guerrillas and cartels, going after narco-trafficking with full force, and rebuilding the counter-narcotics alliance with Washington that Petro spent four years dismantling."

Analysts say the outcome for the U.S. carries significant strategic weight. A De La Espriella administration could align more closely with Washington’s traditional counternarcotics priorities, potentially strengthening bilateral cooperation at a time when synthetic drug flows and organized crime networks are expanding across the hemisphere.

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Beyond bilateral relations, the election is being closely watched as a potential inflection point for Latin America. A De La Espriella or Valencia win would reinforce the momentum of security-focused leadership seen in parts of the region, while a Cepeda presidency would signal continuity for Petro’s policies.

José Manuel Restrepo, candidate for vice president on the ticket with De La Espriella talked exclusively to Fox News Digital. "The relationship between Colombia and the United States needs to be recovered and rebuilt, and this starts with a sound security policy to combat drug trafficking. It will be crucial to move beyond the current deteriorated relationship, in which we lost the historic bilateral, bicameral, bipartisan, and multisectoral relationship with our primary trading and investment partner."

He continued, "To strengthen it, we must seize the opportunity for Colombia to become the United States' best possible ally in the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. Leveraging this relationship with the United States, we can play a major role in investing in food, hygiene products and basic needs from Colombia to Venezuela. This would, among other things, give a new direction to the relationship with the United States, creating new opportunities that benefit Colombia…Under our administration, the relationship with the United States would be strengthened and revitalized.

Guzman noted that "De La Espriella's anti-establishment posture is not a libertarian agenda. His economic program leans on price controls, interest-rate subsidies, and import substitution, closer to old-school Latin American populism than to Bukele's pro-investment turn, and a world away from Milei's free-market project. Whether the economic program that comes with it creates new instability south of the border is the open question."

Analyst, entrepreneur and son of a former president Jerónimo Uribe said the stakes could not be clearer in Sunday's presidential race. "The elections in Colombia are not between the left and the right. They are between a communist model propped up by drug traffickers and a model that defends democracy and freedom," he told Fox News Digital.

Representatives for Cepeda did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A close ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been deported by Venezuela to the United States, according to Venezuelan officials, to face federal charges accusing him of orchestrating a sweeping money laundering and bribery scheme tied to Venezuela’s state-run food program and oil industry.

Alex Nain Saab Moran, 55, of Colombia, a former minister of industry and national production under the Maduro regime, appeared in federal court in Miami Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The Justice Department said Saab is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors allege Saab led a yearslong scheme beginning around 2015 to defraud a humanitarian program intended to provide food to impoverished Venezuelans.

He and his co-conspirators later allegedly sold billions of dollars’ worth of Venezuelan state-owned oil while circumventing U.S. sanctions, according to the Justice Department. Authorities say the proceeds were routed through U.S. bank accounts in an effort to conceal the transactions and further advance the scheme.

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"Alex Saab allegedly used American banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a Venezuelan food program meant for the poor and proceeds from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement. "This is unacceptable. The Criminal Division will not allow foreign actors to exploit the American financial system and use it as a safe haven for the proceeds of their corruption." 

Beginning around 2015, Saab and his associates allegedly paid bribes to Venezuelan government officials to secure contracts tied to the country’s CLAP welfare program, which was intended to purchase and distribute food to vulnerable and impoverished Venezuelans. 

Instead of delivering the promised food supplies, prosecutors allege the group used shell companies, fraudulent invoices and falsified shipping records to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from the program for their own personal gain.

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Around 2019, as sweeping U.S. sanctions crippled Venezuela’s oil exports and placed severe strain on the country’s finances, including its ability to pay Saab and his associates under the CLAP program, Saab and his partners allegedly exploited their corrupt ties to government officials to gain access to billions of dollars’ worth of oil owned by Venezuela’s state-run oil company. 

Officials allege the group sold the oil under false pretenses and used the profits to sustain and expand the original food fraud scheme.

Saab and his associates reportedly laundered the allegedly stolen funds through U.S. bank accounts in an effort to conceal the money trail, giving American authorities jurisdiction to prosecute the case.

"When illicit proceeds are moved through the United States financial system, our courts have jurisdiction and our prosecutors will act," U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement.

Saab was previously indicted in the U.S. in 2019 and extradited from Cabo Verde in 2021. He was pardoned by President Biden in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap, though prosecutors say the new case involves alleged conduct not covered by that pardon.

A Miami-based attorney for Saab declined to comment to The Associated Press.

If convicted, Saab faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The government is also seeking forfeiture of any property or proceeds allegedly obtained through the alleged criminal activity.

The case was investigated by a U.S. Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The number of people killed in a bombing in a volatile region in southwest Colombia rose to 20, officials said Sunday.

The attack happened Saturday when an explosive device was detonated on a bus traveling along the Pan-American Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. So far, 15 women and five men are among the victims, according to Octavio Guzmán, governor of the region of Cauca.

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He wrote on X that the attack injured 36 others, three of whom are in intensive care. Guzmán noted that five of the injured are minors who are expected to recover.

Colombia’s Institute of Legal Medicine said that specialists including dentists, anthropologists and forensic doctors are identifying the victims.

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The bombing is the latest attack in the region, with more than two dozen incidents reported in the past three days in southwestern Colombia. The region is home to illegal armed groups who vie for control of coca leaf cultivation areas and for sea and river access routes to run drug trafficking operations to Central America and Europe.

Gen. Hugo López, commander of Colombia’s armed forces, has described the incident as a "terrorist act." He blamed it on the network of a man known as "Iván Mordisco" — one of Colombia’s most wanted figures — and the Jaime Martínez faction. Both are dissidents of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that operate in the region.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the attacks against the civilian population and called on authorities to investigate the incidents and "guarantee justice for the victims."

Guzmán declared three days of mourning on Sunday in memory of the victims.

MEXICO CITY: The recent high-profile gathering of leftist leaders in Barcelona, convened by Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, is drawing increasing attention for what analysts describe as a broader geopolitical positioning that could challenge U.S. influence across Latin America and beyond.

The summit brought together Brazil President Lula da Silva, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum. Framed as a platform for addressing inequality, climate change and the rise of right-wing political movements, yet the rhetoric coming from it has raised questions in Washington and across the region about whether a more coordinated political counterweight to the United States is taking shape.

Without naming the Trump administration, Sánchez warned of the "normalization of the use of force" and "attempts to undermine international law", as criticism of U.S. foreign policy. He also pushed for reforms to global institutions, arguing that the current system no longer reflects today’s geopolitical realities, a position that implicitly challenges long-standing U.S. leadership in those bodies.

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"The Barcelona summit reflects a deliberate effort by Pedro Sánchez to position himself as a leading figure within an emerging progressive bloc that is increasingly critical of U.S. foreign policy under President Trump," Juan Angel Soto, founder and CEO of Fortius Consulting told Fox News Digital.

"This positioning is particularly complex given Spain’s structural anchoring in both the European Union and NATO, which traditionally align it closely with Washington. However, Sánchez has simultaneously deepened ties with the Global South, evident in his growing proximity to China, as well as to leaders such as Lula, Sheinbaum and Petro, suggesting a dual-track foreign policy that seeks greater autonomy from U.S. influence," Soto said.

The Colombian leader tied global tensions directly to economic and energy systems, arguing that fossil fuel dependence has fueled conflict and inequality, an argument that aligns with broader criticism of Western-led economic models.

Roberto Salinas León, director of International Affairs at Universidad de la Libertad in Mexico City, told Fox News Digital, "The ill-named summit ‘In Defense of Democracy’ held in Barcelona brought together notable ‘progressives’ with an aim to bring together a global contingent opposed to, well, Trump 2.0. How convenient."

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"Petro stated that ‘Latin American progressivism is a ray of hope for a humanity in crisis.’ Yet these would-be spokespersons for democracy have supported such inhumane brutal dictatorships like Cuba, Nicaragua, Maduro’s Venezuela, Iran, and others. This gathering is more aptly characterized as a political mascara of electoral autocracies, each leader undermining the institutional checks and balances of open liberal democracies," he said.

Brazil’s Lula criticized what he described as interventionist policies by major powers and called for a rebalancing of global governance, including changes to the U.N. Security Council. At one point, he characterized recent U.S. leadership as contributing to global instability, reinforcing a central theme of the summit: that the current international order needs to be redefined.

"The new Cold War is being waged between China and the United States; it is this very rivalry that is at stake in every country participating in the summit. Lula’s concern regarding the resurgence of the right has become patently obvious, particularly when observing Argentina and Chile, where the victories of Milei and Kast have ushered in ‘winds of change.’ We are, quite literally, living through times reminiscent of the fall of the Berlin Wall, specifically, the collapse of ‘21st-century socialism’ across Hispanic America, and this is precisely what has them so worried," Brazilian political analyst Sandra Bronzina told Fox News Digital

"When the global progressive left rails against the United States, talking about sovereignty and peace, or speaking out against war, they are not doing so out of mere altruism or good intentions. Rather, they are driven by a shadowy self-interest: ensuring that China continues to colonize our nations, a process that is, evidently, already well underway."

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Mexico’s Sheinbaum underscored the principle of national sovereignty, reiterating Latin America’s longstanding emphasis on non-intervention. She joined other leaders in opposing sanctions on countries such as Cuba, signaling a willingness to coordinate positions that diverge sharply from U.S. policy in the region.

Taken together, analysts say the messaging out of Barcelona suggests the early stages of a loosely aligned bloc, one that is increasingly willing to challenge U.S. positions on global governance, regional policy and economic strategy.

Yet even as leaders in Barcelona warn of a rising right-wing threat, political realities across the Americas tell a different story, one that may resonate more directly with U.S. audiences.

In Argentina, sweeping economic reforms focused on deregulation and fiscal discipline have captured global attention as an alternative to state-led models. In El Salvador, aggressive security policies have dramatically reduced violence. And in Ecuador, a renewed focus on law-and-order and institutional control is emerging as a response to escalating cartel violence.

Analysts say these examples highlight a counter to the Barcelona narrative in that a significant portion of the region is moving toward policies centered on security, market reforms and stronger state authority — priorities that often align more closely with U.S. strategic interests.

Experts say the contrast is striking. On one side, a group of leaders in Barcelona is calling for a rethinking of global systems long associated with U.S. leadership. On the other, governments across the hemisphere are experimenting with approaches that emphasize economic liberalization and strong security measures.