The results from Colombia’s presidential runoff this week were a decisive victory by right-wing outsider Abelardo De la Espriella over leftist Ivan Cepeda.
De la Espriella previously expressed support for President Donald Trump and was rewarded by an endorsement from the U.S. president during the runoff, despite never having run for office previously, reported the Associated Press.
De la Espriella, a criminal defense attorney who goes by “El Tigre,” won with 49.7% of the vote against Cepeda’s 48.7%.
Colombia has now followed Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Costa Rica in electing conservative governments, after a groundswell of support for leftist governments in Latin America emerged after the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported.
“This is an unusual alignment of the stars for Trump,” Steven Levitsky, professor of Latin American Studies and government at Harvard University, told the wire service. “Rarely do you see a large number of governments as ideologically convergent as we’re seeing now.”
The trend is likely related to the fact that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) money no longer supports leftist governments in the Western hemisphere.
A review of government documents by The Lion several weeks ago suggested USAID funding had been a large portion of U.S. taxpayer money previously financing leftist political victories in Central and South America.
The conservative victory ended four years of President Gustavo Petro’s leftist government, Colombia’s first.
The timing doesn’t seem to be coincidental.
Colombia’s 2022 election – the one that brought Petro to power – took place at the height of Biden-era USAID spending in the region.
Data from the State Department compiled by The Lion after the Colombia election results shows the Biden administration in 2022 shipped at least $90,425,318 through USAID and other State Department social justice programs with a highly political character.
Some of the programs included $15 million for Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian Empowerment Activity; $19 million for Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) II, part of a land titling program that USAID’s own auditors acknowledged they could not clearly distinguish from Petro’s agrarian reform agenda; and $12 million for Youth Resilience Activity aimed at strengthening youth “psychosocial and life skills while fostering healthy relationships and networks.”
About half the money came through the State Department and USAID programs for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG), which critics claim is a device for in-country left-wing NGOs to use for political purposes.
The other half of the money looks like it was deliberately miscategorized.
For example, the Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian Empowerment Activity was categorized as “Protection, Assistance and Solutions,” which is typically assigned to a security classification for certain populations. The STARR program was categorized under Agriculture.
U.S. DRG spending for Colombia mushroomed under Biden, just in time for Petro’s election.
- 2020: $25.7M (Trump)
- 2021: $43.6M (Biden)
- 2022: $90.4M (Biden; with hidden categories included)
- 2023: $81.9M (Biden)
- 2024: $17.3M (Biden)
- 2025: $26M (Trump)
In 2026, the spending was virtually zero after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to put a moratorium on foreign aid spending.
Some on the right are arguing the victories in Latin America for conservatives were in no small part aided by the cancellation of the foreign aid.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, posted a before-and-after comparison telling the story in two numbers.
In June 2023, the Latin American political map showed left-wing governments in 10 countries, right-wing in three. As of this month, the right now holds seven, the left six.
“The @SecRubio effect,” said Luna about the changed map, created by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who slashed the USAID money. “Once he cut off the corrupt USAID slush funds, look what happened.”
Mike Benz, who helped lead the effort to dismantle USAID, was more explicit noting USAID interfered in governments around the world.
“Yet another victory for USAID being gone,” he said on social media.
De la Espriella takes office Aug. 7. He has promised to build remote megaprisons and launch a military offensive against drug trafficking groups.
“There is no liberty without security,” he said during his victory speech on Sunday, according to the New York Times. “There is no democracy without authority.”
Not coincidentally, anti-narcotic aid by the U.S. government went down under Biden as NGO social funding went up in Colombia.
In 2020, the U.S. spent $268 million on counternarcotics programs in Colombia; by 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, that figure had dropped to $63 million, a cut of more than $200 million that was never restored.
Trump congratulated himself on the De la Espriella victory within hours of the preliminary results.
“Trump Scores 8 Triumphs in 7 Years Across Latin America,” he noted on Truth Social.
Those victories, notably, came without an assist from USAID.
