BT Live

Colombian youth flooded the streets of Bogota Sunday night in support of presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda.

The preliminary count places the far-right, Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella in first place at 49.66% of the votes and the progressive Cepeda at 48.7%.

In a speech to his supporters Sunday night, Cepeda said the preliminary vote count was “not official nor binding” and vowed to challenge results from over 30,000 voting stations.

Throughout the leadup to Sunday’s runoff election, Cepeda supporters accused the other side of fraud, vote-buying, intimidation, and foreign interference.

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Progressive presidential candidate Iván Cepeda addressed supporters on Sunday regarding the quick election count, just hours after the polls closed in Colombia, saying they were "not yet official or binding.”

The quick count indicates a difference of 250,820 votes between Cepeda and his opponent, far-right, Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella.

Cepeda's Historic Pact Political Movement has called on lawyers to mobilize to vote counting stations across the country to verify the results and make sure each vote is counted. Throughout the day numerous denunciations were lodged of vote buying and other irregularities.

Meanwhile, de la Espriella has publicly claimed victory and received messages of congratulations from US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and several right-wing legislators from Florida.

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Colombian political activist Beto Coral was detained by HSI agents in Phoenix last Tuesday after publicly speaking out against Trump-backed presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the memo declaring Coral “deportable,” noting that despite his pending asylum application, allowing Coral to stay “undermines US foreign policy interests in Colombia’s democratic processes.”

Trump has expressed strong support for the far-right de la Espriella in Sunday’s runoff election, and many Colombians have accused the administration of interference.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has demanded Coral’s release, calling him a “political prisoner.”

On Saturday, BT spoke to Coral’s former partner Tatiana Camacho, who has been in contact with him since his arrest. Camacho says deportation back to Colombia would bring “imminent risk” to Coral’s life.

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“Israel is coming to see that there aren’t that many levers left to pull”

A little-known provision buried in Congress could fuse the U.S. and Israeli defense industries, locking in military, intelligence, AI, and weapons cooperation for decades to come. Prem Thakker of Zeteo News joins Rania Khalek and Zoe Alexandra to expose Section 224, the powerful lobby groups driving it, and why critics warn it could make the U.S.-Israel military relationship nearly impossible to reverse just as public support for Israel reaches historic lows.

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Is Trump meddling in Colombia's elections?

The country heads to the polls Sunday for a runoff election which will decide the next president: the progressive human rights lawyer Iván Cepeda faces off against far-right Trump pick Abelardo de la Espriella.

LA-based activist Javier Guerrero discusses foreign interference in tomorrow's high stakes election.

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