Colombia’s Pro-Trump Presidential Frontrunner Thrills Investors

Abelardo de la Espriella during an election night rally on May 31. Photo by Carlos Parra Rios /Photographer: Carlos Parra Ríos/

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(Bloomberg) — Exuberant market reaction to a celebrity lawyer’s surprise victory in Colombia’s first-round election Sunday is sowing expectations for an investment rebound in the resource-rich Andean country.

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Abelardo de la Espriella — who calls himself “The Tiger” —  is known for hawking his own brands of menswear and rum in the brash style of Donald Trump. He’s vowing to kickstart the Colombian economy after years of waning investment under outgoing leftist president Gustavo Petro. From oil to financial services and health care, Colombia may be primed for an economic jolt, analysts say, if the populist frontrunner can overcome Petro’s ideological heir Iván Cepeda in the June 21 runoff.

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Petro, who is not eligible for reelection, is leaving behind a sluggish economy. Foreign direct investment plummeted by a third to $11.5 billion in 2025 from $17.2 billion in 2022 when he took office. Among the key sectors that took a beating was hydrocarbons, after Petro banned new drilling and quashed fracking plans in a bid to wean the country off fossil fuels. Crude production stagnated and a natural gas deficit deepened. 

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De la Espriella regularly bashes Petro’s green agenda, vowing a comeback akin to the Trump administration’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra. Shares in Colombia’s state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol SA jumped 9% Monday.

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“In the Tiger’s government, we will exploit the subsoil to the maximum,” the candidate declared at a recent campaign rally. Although he has been less vocal on Colombia’s shrinking coal industry, such rhetoric suggests he would ease pressure on Glencore-owned mine Cerrejón, which Petro’s government exhorted to deliver closure and transition plans. 

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But De la Espriella has also said he embraces “neither climate denialism nor dogmatic environmentalism,” suggesting room for moderation.

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On gold and other minerals, the law-and-order politician has vowed to support legal mining and impose an “iron fist” on illegal ones, part of his wider security focus.

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His strident tone sits well with US business interests. The electoral result “sent a clear signal to the market: Colombia is choosing something deeper than a president — it is choosing a method of government,” said María Claudia Lacouture, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Colombia. Aside from oil and gas, she sees potential for reactivation in mining, infrastructure, agribusiness and tourism.

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De la Espriella is offering “constitutional authority, security, anti-corruption, deregulation and fiscal adjustment, with energy and agriculture as engines of growth. Governing by unlocking bottlenecks through authority,” Lacouture added.

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Washington is Colombia’s most important commercial, military and strategic ally, requiring the country to spurn “axes of influence” such as China, according to a foreign-policy post on De la Espriella’s campaign website. 

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In investment terms, that won’t be easy. Two days before the first-round election, for example, Beijing’s ambassador to Colombia Zhu Jingyang joined the first test ride of the $6.3 billion Chinese-built Bogota metro, a symbol of Colombia’s participation in the Asian giant’s Belt and Road Initiative.