BOGOTA, Colombia — Trump-endorsed outsider Abelardo de la Espriella appears to have won Colombia’s presidential election, making Colombia the latest country in Latin America to have chosen more conservative leadership.
Mr. de la Espriella was leading over rival Ivan Cepeda by about one percentage point — about 251,000 votes — with nearly all votes counted Monday. Officials have not yet declared a winner. Mr. Cepeda has challenged the results, but that review is unlikely to change the outcome.
Mr. de la Espriella campaigned on a tough-on-crime approach, which includes proposals like canceling peace talks with Colombian rebel groups and building mega prisons, like those in El Salvador. He was endorsed by U.S. President Trump, who described the lawyer and business owner, nicknamed “The Tiger,” as the candidate who could restore law and order in Colombia.
Here is a look at the Latin American countries that have elected conservative presidents in recent years:
Argentina: Javier Milei, an economist and television commentator nicknamed “The Lion,” won Argentina’s presidential election in November 2023 by promising to slash government spending and tackle the South American nation’s decades-long inflation problem. The libertarian defeated the ruling Peronist movement.
During his tenure, Mr. Milei has stopped the nation’s central bank from printing money to finance the government deficit and has cut government spending by firing civil servants and halting investment in public infrastructure programs, while reducing subsidies for public utility bills.
Argentina’s inflation has fallen from 211% in 2023 to 32% in 2025. However some have blamed Mr. Milei’s austerity policies for decreasing the living standards of many Argentines, including public sector workers.
Ecuador: Daniel Noboa, a member of one of Ecuador’s wealthiest families, was reelected to a four-year term in April 2025, winning the election with 56% of the vote. The conservative leader has given the military a more prominent role in providing security in coastal cities overrun by drug gangs fighting over the control of ports and drug trafficking routes.
Under Mr. Noboa’s watch, Ecuador’s military has started to conduct joint operations against drug traffickers with the U.S.
Honduras: Nasry Asfura, a real estate investor, narrowly won the presidential election in Honduras in November, defeating his closest rival by less than a percentage point.
Mr. Asfura, who belongs to the same party as former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was pardoned by Mr. Trump for a drug trafficking conviction, was endorsed by the U.S. president, who threatened to cut off aid to the small Central American country if Mr. Nasfura was not elected. Under Mr. Asfura’s administration, Honduras has received dozens of deportees from third countries through an agreement that was signed with the U.S. in early 2025, most of them Guatemalan nationals.
Chile: In December, Jose Antonio Kast, a conservative and a devout Catholic, won Chile’s presidential election with 58% of the vote, defeating a progressive government that had been in power for the previous four years.
In his campaigns, Mr. Kast capitalized on concerns over increasing crime rates and said he would expel migrants from countries like Venezuela and Haiti.
Costa Rica: Laura Fernández, an economy minister under conservative ex-President Rodrigo Chaves, won Costa Rica’s election in February with 48% of the vote, defeating her closest rival by 15 percentage points and surpassing the 40% of votes needed to avoid a runoff election.
During her campaign, Fernández proposed tough-on-crime measures, including a state of exception that would enable police to arrest suspects without warrants, and said she would build a mega prison modeled after El Salvador’s notorious CECOT penitentiary.
Her government has received several flights with migrants from third countries deported by the U.S.
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