by WorldTribune Staff, June 22, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
Abelardo de la Espriella, a conservative businessman backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, won Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday.
“The Colombian people, the masses, spoke out and we defeated the regime,” de la Espriella said.
Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella is the new president of Colombia. / Video Image
De la Espriella is a dual U.S. and Colombian citizen and a registered Republican who worked in Miami.
The State Department said Secretary Marco Rubio called the Colombian president-elect to congratulate him.
“This result reflects the will of the Colombian people and their commitment to democracy,” the department said.
“The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with his incoming administration to advance our bilateral and regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen the economic ties between our two countries.”
De la Espriella’s victory marks the seventh triumph for conservatives in Latin America since Trump defunded USAID in early 2025.
In Ecuador, conservative Daniel Noboa defeated leftist Luisa González decisively in the April 2025 runoff, winning 55.63% of the vote. Ecuador’s exploding crime and cartel violence were central to the race.
In Bolivia, conservative Rodrigo Paz Pereira won the October 2025 runoff with 55%, ending the long dominance of Evo Morales’s socialist MAS movement.
In Chile, conservative José Antonio Kast won in December 2025 with 58.2% after campaigning on security, immigration, and restoring order, defeating Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara.
In Honduras, Trump-backed conservative Nasry “Tito” Asfura’s December 2025 election victory was another rejection of the region’s left-wing “pink tide.”
In Costa Rica, Laura Fernández won the presidency and her party won 31 of 57 seats in Congress in the Feb. 1, 2026 election. It marked the first time since 1990 that one party took both the presidency and a legislative majority.
In Argentina’s October 2025 midterms, conservative President Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza strengthened his hand in Congress and won enough seats to prevent the leftist opposition from having enough votes to override presidential vetoes.
Revolver News noted: “These are impressive wins, and the timing definitely has a lot of people going ‘hmmm.’ Team Trump didn’t just trim some fat around the edges. They literally froze foreign assistance and wiped out thousands of contracts. And that’s where the timeline shows the exact moment the political shift started.”
Upon his return to the White House in January 2025, Trump issued an executive order, “Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” which froze all foreign aid for a 90-day review.
In March 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that a six-week review had been completed and that 83% of programs at USAID (5,200 contracts) had been cancelled and some 5,800 employees at the agency were laid off.
The remaining roughly 1,000 USAID contracts and core operations were transferred directly into the State Department under an “America First” global health and assistance strategy.
“When 5,200 contracts go bye-bye, so do the organizations, consultants, advocacy groups, media projects, election programs, and nonprofit networks that need that money to survive,” Revolver News noted. “And as we all know, USAID wasn’t doing traditional aid work. They worked in sectors that were very political.”
“Sure, maybe voters were just fed up with crime, corruption, inflation, and failed left-wing governments. And maybe the old political order was already falling apart at the seams. …
“Or maybe it turns out that USAID was spreading propaganda, creating extreme left-wing networks, and helping to rig elections, and now that they’re gone, people’s actual vote matters again.”
