Far-right candidate and President-elect of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, has announced that he will close the Colombian embassy in Ghana.
In a post on their Threads handle on Monday, 27 July 2026, The NovaTimes reported that President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella also indicated that embassies in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Cuba, Czechia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Hungary, among others, will also be closed.
“Colombia’s president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella says he’ll close embassies in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Cuba, Czechia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Hungary, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Romania, Senegal, and South Africa,” the post read.
“He’ll also cancel plans for an embassy in Palestine and merge Colombia’s diplomatic missions in France (UNESCO) and Italy (FAO). Colombia will maintain diplomatic relations with all countries except Cuba and Nicaragua,” the post further read.
President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella who was endorsed by US President Donald Trump, won the preliminary count of the presidential race in Colombia on Sunday, 21 June 2026, clinching a narrow margin over his government-backed rival Iván Cepeda.
De La Espriella claimed victory, telling a crowd of supporters in the coastal city of Barranquilla that the “historic” result would “change the course of Colombia’s history forever.” But his rival, Cepeda, has urged voters to wait for the final, binding count.
A de la Espriella government would represent a major rightward shift in Colombia and could reshape the country’s relationship with the United States following tensions between Trump and leftist President Gustavo Petro.
Known as “El Tigre” (“The Tiger”), self-described conservative de la Espriella has promised a more confrontational approach toward criminal organizations, stronger security ties with the US, lower taxes, expanded oil exploration, and economic liberalization.
With 99.91% of the votes counted in the razor-tight runoff, the preliminary count showed the 47-year-old lawyer and businessman won 49.65% of the vote, a margin of fewer than 250,000 ballots over Cepeda, who secured 47.81% support.
De la Espriella said he had already received congratulations from Trump, who had “expressed his support and recognition of our victory.”
“He Won, Big!,” Trump posted on Truth Social late Sunday night, alongside an article about the results. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had spoken with de la Espriella and congratulated him on his victory.
“The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with your incoming administration to advance regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen our economic ties,” Rubio wrote on X, adding, “Colombia’s best days are ahead.”
But Petro, the outgoing Colombian president who had endorsed the rival candidate Cepada, warned that “no one can yet be declared president” because of the narrow margin. “It is the official tally that determines who the president is. I will abide by the judges,” Petro wrote on X.
Cepeda, himself, told supporters the count was “not yet official or legally binding” and said he would await the final results of the official vote tally.
“Our network of poll watchers — tens of thousands of them — along with lawyers are challenging 33,000 polling stations across the country,” he said.
