AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show in Colombia, where the right-wing, Trump-backed candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has clinched a narrow victory in Sunday’s runoff presidential election, defeating the leftist Senator Iván Cepeda. An initial ballot count shows de la Espriella received about 49.7% of the vote, while Cepeda, who’s an ally of current Colombian President Gustavo Petro, trailed by only some quarter of a million votes at 48.7%. The results must still be verified with a final review of the ballots.

Thousands of people reportedly took to the streets of Bogotá and Cali Sunday night, some denouncing U.S. meddling in the election. Cepeda spoke last night, called on Colombia election officials to scrutinize the initial results during the ballot verification process. He had this message for his supporters.

IVÁN CEPEDA: [translated] We extend our most sincere, profound and heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to the 12.7 million Colombians whose support at the polls reinforces our conviction that profound democratic social change in Colombian society is entirely possible.

AMY GOODMAN: Iván Cepeda is a prominent human rights defender who had vowed to continue Petro’s progressive agenda and to negotiate peace with Colombia’s armed groups. His father was assassinated by right-wing, U.S.-backed paramilitary groups in 1994.

In contrast, de la Espriella is a millionaire businessman and lawyer who ran a fearmongering, tough-on-crime campaign; has promised to build mega-prisons, inspired by El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele; to bomb “narcoterrorist camps,” quote-unquote; and to abandon Petro’s peace efforts.

De la Espriella’s reported victory is also a win for U.S. President Trump and his administration, as his administration intervenes across Latin America, waging an intensifying so-called war on drugs, in which even Colombia’s current President Petro has been a target of, after he faced false accusations and threats from Trump. Following news of de la Espriella’s victory, Trump wrote on social media, “He Won, BIG!” unquote. Despite threatening to, quote, “disembowel the left” throughout his campaign, de la Espriella shifted his tone last night while speaking in Colombia.

PRESIDENT-ELECT ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA: [translated] I will govern for all Colombians, for those who voted for me and for those who chose another candidate. There will be no winners or losers. There will be no reprisals, no persecution, because in a democracy, there are no irreconcilable enemies. There are compatriots who think differently.

AMY GOODMAN: De la Espriella refers to himself as “The Tiger.” He’s a lawyer and political newcomer.

For more, we go to Cali, Colombia, where we’re joined by Manuel Rozental, longtime Colombian physician and activist. He’s been exiled several times for his political activities. Dr. Rozental is part of the group Pueblos en Camino, or People on the Path.

Manuel, protests have taken place in Cali. Please describe what’s happening on the ground and how Colombians are responding to the election news.

DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: Well, thank you, Amy.

Now the situation is tense, but it’s also calm. And it’s calm because of the speech, part of which you presented, of Iván Cepeda last night, calling for calm and/or — so, there were some peaceful mobilizations yesterday. But the situation is tense, has been very tense, but it’s calm now, and we have to see what happens. Of course, most of us, me included, feel a tremendous hangover after this result.

But let me tell you, after your introduction, what this election is about, was about, and it’s beyond Colombia. It’s from Colombia. Two projects that are playing, confronting themselves through the electoral process from Colombia, but not only in Colombia, one represented by Iván Cepeda: social reforms, human rights, progressive government, justice and the fight against corruption and crime and for peace, the most decent candidate you can find, with a transparent trajectory. On the other hand, de la Espriella clearly represents a criminal approach to politics: lying, propaganda, coordination and collusion with criminal narcotrafficking, restriction of rights, and money laundering.

And how these two projects confront each other electorally, and how the criminal project is winning, the context of this, of course, is what you mentioned, a link between local to regional to national mafias, where drug trafficking, legal and illegal control of territories and resources, are producing wealth and transferring it to the north, that in coordination with the Monroe Doctrine, the Shield of the Americas and the U.S. project linked to drug trafficking, with the pretext of attacking it while bombing boats in the Caribbean and so on. So, this project is now labeled as an outsider project. It’s a mafia-type project, criminal project from the ground up, taking over a new state and then defeating a progressive, institutional, state-based democratic process.

AMY GOODMAN: Manuel, we just have less than a minute. What does this mean for the peace process?

DR. MANUEL ROZENTAL: It’s a horrendous perspective. We expect to have military operations and a U.S. intervention within the country. We expect to have human rights abuses. We expect to have militarization. And it’s all for the extraction of resources and the link of drug trafficking to the U.S. government, U.S. interests and global mafia.

AMY GOODMAN: Manuel Rozental, we’re going to continue the discussion and post online at democracynow.org and also have a conversation in Spanish, and we’ll post it online. Manuel Rozental is a longtime Colombian physician and activist, exiled several times, part of Pueblos en Camino, or People on the Path.

That does it for our show. Tomorrow, June 23rd, at 7:30, the film about Democracy Now!, Steal This Story, Please!, will be playing at the IFC here in New York City. It will be — there will be a Q&A after. I’ll be with the directors, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. The moderator will be Elliot Page. You can check our website at democracynow.org. That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman, for another edition of Democracy Now!