Popping up in a bulletproof sales space sporting Colombia’s yellow soccer jersey, fist pumping the air, Abelardo De La Espriella roars to crowds of hundreds, “Your tiger is right here!”
Only a few months in the past, he was just about unknown, touring by means of Latin America — and hanging round President Trump’s golf membership close to Miami — attempting to make connections and drum up assist.
Now, Mr. De La Espriella, 47, could possibly be elected the subsequent president of Colombia, one of many largest economies in Latin America and traditionally Washington’s closest ally within the area.
After profitable essentially the most votes within the first spherical, he faces a left-wing senator, Iván Cepeda, in a runoff on Sunday.
Mr. De La Espriella, a legal protection lawyer and businessman with no political expertise, seemingly got here out of nowhere, propelled by a self-financed populist marketing campaign, a social media blitz and, not too long ago, an endorsement from Mr. Trump.
He has divided Colombians. Supporters say his combative power is required to defeat cocaine-trafficking teams, whereas critics warn of an authoritarian menace, as Mr. De La Espriella pledges to “disembowel the left” and ruthlessly pursue opponents with the assistance of the USA.
Many on each side are nonetheless asking: Who is that this man?
An Opera-Singing Miami Lawyer
His marketing campaign has borrowed concepts from different right-wing leaders — megaprisons from President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, cost-cutting from President Javier Milei of Argentina (together with a tiger mascot, a nod to Mr. Milei’s lion) — and has seized on anger at Colombia’s outgoing leftist president, Gustavo Petro.
Mr. De La Espriella has vowed to revive safety, shrink the state, take management of the well being system and intently collaborate with the Trump administration.
He has pitched himself as a patriot, sporting the nationwide soccer jersey and a Panama hat and saluting crowds with the slogan “Firme por la patria,” or “Standing agency for the homeland.”
Not way back, he reduce a special determine.
Mr. De La Espriella, who declined to be interviewed for this text, spent greater than a decade in Miami, the place he was recognized for dealing with high-profile authorized circumstances again in Colombia.
He projected wealth and refined style with tailor-made fits and fedoras, sprinkled Italian into conversations, the opera and opened a piano bar known as Místico.
“He was a Miami playboy,” mentioned María Jimena Duzán, a outstanding Colombian journalist.
Again then, he appeared much less enchanted along with his place of birth. He complained about not with the ability to discover a proper barber in Colombia and known as ajiaco, a beloved conventional dish, “jail stew.”
“He tends towards what we might name behaving like a divo,” mentioned Ángel Becassino, a biographer.
‘An Wonderful Work Area of interest’
Mr. De La Espriella was raised in Córdoba, a cattle-ranching area alongside the Caribbean coast that was a hotbed for right-wing paramilitaries — armed teams shaped by landowners to combat left-wing guerrillas.
By the Nineteen Nineties, the paramilitaries had grow to be one other violent scourge — seizing land, committing massacres and trafficking medication earlier than ultimately agreeing to disband.
Mr. De La Espriella sensed a chance.
He created a peace basis, bringing college college students to fulfill paramilitary members, who he argued must be handled as political actors relatively than prosecuted as criminals. Politicians accused of getting ties to paramilitaries sought him out.
“Paramilitary politics is a wonderful work area of interest,” he told a reporter in 2008. “And I didn’t need to sit out a very powerful occasion in Colombia.”
Days earlier than the runoff, his rival, Mr. Cepeda, accused Mr. De La Espriella of being a paramilitary “confederate.”
Mr. De La Espriella, who has accused Mr. Cepeda of getting ties to left-wing teams, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Excessive-Profile Purchasers
Mr. De La Espriella moved to Miami and took on high-profile shoppers, together with accused drug traffickers and the mastermind of one among Colombia’s largest pyramid schemes.
Then there was Alex Saab, accused by the U.S. authorities of serving to launder a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for Venezuela’s former chief, Nicolás Maduro. Mr. De La Espriella has downplayed the connection, saying he reduce ties with Mr. Saab as soon as he was sought by the USA.
Mr. De La Espriella additionally defended Colombian celebrities and, ultimately, his private hero: the previous two-term president Álvaro Uribe, who himself was implicated in paramilitary violence.
Mr. Uribe grew to become his calling card, serving to open doorways in Florida. Joaquín Pérez, a Cuban American lawyer in Miami who defended extradited paramilitary commanders, recalled Mr. De La Espriella phoning Mr. Uribe and placing him on speakerphone to say hiya.
Mr. De La Espriella shuttled between the USA and Colombia, and his workplaces have been lined with images of highly effective Colombian shoppers.
Iván Cancino, a lawyer and longtime affiliate of Mr. De La Espriella in Bogotá, mentioned critics had scrutinized him exactly due to his success.
“Folks citing his consumer listing merely exhibits that he was a wonderful lawyer as a result of many individuals sought out his providers,” he mentioned.
‘Higher Name Abelardo’
Whereas Mr. De La Espriella remained unknown to most Colombians, a string of accusations put him on the radar of journalists.
Purchasers have come ahead saying that he requested them for hundreds of thousands to “faucet” lawmakers on their behalf or stole their cash.
Mr. De La Espriella has pushed again in opposition to the claims and focused the press, submitting almost 110 lawsuits in opposition to journalists, in response to an analysis by the Bogotá-based Basis for Press Freedom.
Amongst these he sued was a Colombian columnist who in contrast him to Saul Goodman, the ethically questionable lawyer initially from “Breaking Unhealthy,” in a column headlined, “Higher Name Abelardo.”
The case was finally dropped, however Jonathan Bock, the columnist, mentioned Mr. De La Espriella screamed at him in a listening to, threatened to grab his belongings and demanded a public apology — habits that exposed, Mr. Bock mentioned, “the way in which he understands energy.”
Prodigal Son
Mr. De La Espriella gave up the regulation just a few years in the past.
He and his spouse, Ana Lucía Pineda, gave the impression to be settled in Miami — that they had purchased a multimillion-dollar dwelling, and Mr. De La Espriella was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2023 — however the subsequent yr, they packed up their 4 kids and moved to Florence, Italy.
Final yr, he introduced his presidential run.
The person who had reinvented himself when he left Colombia reinvented himself once more when he returned. He had discovered God after a relative’s dying, he mentioned, and had a brand new appreciation for Colombian delicacies.
He was impressed to run, in response to folks near him, by final yr’s assassination of one other conservative presidential hopeful, Miguel Uribe Turbay. He had come again, he mentioned, to “save” Colombia.
Republican Connections
Mr. De La Espriella went to Mr. Trump’s Doral golf membership close to Miami in March to rub shoulders with conservative Latin American leaders and U.S. officers at a summit hosted by the president.
Close by, he met Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a Colombian-born Republican with shut ties to the White Home, for espresso. “He’s a 20/10 on the power scale, which I like,” he mentioned of Mr. De La Espriella in an interview.
He additionally hung out with Consultant María Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Miami whose marketing campaign he had donated to. She later supported his run and known as him “a personal friend.”
In Florida, he labored different connections constructed throughout his Miami years.
Fabio A. Andrade, a metropolis commissioner and outstanding Colombian American Republican pal of Mr. De La Espriella, mentioned he and others had “held essential conferences” with Colombian consuls to encourage Colombians overseas, who are likely to lean proper, to vote.
As for a very powerful vote of confidence — Mr. Trump’s — Mr. Moreno mentioned that “the president makes his personal selections” on the subject of endorsements. However, he added, “I actually gave him a really sturdy viewpoint.”
“The president clearly is aware of that he’s the man that he can work with,” Mr. Moreno added.
Colombia, the Winner
To Alejandro Salazar, a enterprise strategist and co-author of “Colombia Ganadora,” or “Colombia the Winner,” Mr. De La Espriella represents a return of the aggressive optimism of Mr. Uribe’s phrases 20 years in the past.
“He symbolizes a thriving Colombia, a Colombia that loves freedom,” he mentioned.
Mr. De La Espriella additionally represents a pacesetter who will not be afraid to impress.
He told a female journalist on a chat present final month to take a look at a photograph of his crotch that he mentioned had gained him “some superior votes from the feminine voters.”
And because the runoff approached, Mr. De La Espriella promised to jail anybody who challenged his victory.
“They’ll see how arduous the tiger bites,” he said. “I’ll see in the event that they’re so powerful and cute when the tiger has his foot on their neck and has them buried 15 meters underground.”
Max Bearak contributed reporting. Alain Delaquérière contributed analysis.
