The close connection of Abelardo de la Espriella with the United States and the doubts raised by an American being the p
If De la Espriella's victory is confirmed, Colombia will see the arrival of a president who spent a good part of his life, his business and his relationships in the United States.
On March 7, 2026, one day before the congressional elections in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella was in an unusual place for a presidential candidate in the middle of a campaign: Miami.
“Miami, here is your tiger that roars and bites,” shouted the now winner of the elections according to the pre-count from the stage of the MCI Church – a Colombian Christian church with a presence in 15 countries – before a crowd that cheered him and waved small tricolor flags.
Being in the United States allowed him to evade the electoral ban that prevents candidates from holding campaign events in the week before the elections.
That same night, he published a photo on his social networks with two important American politicians: Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar and Undersecretary of State Christopher Landau.
“Wonderful evening in Miami with two great friends from Colombia,” wrote the then candidate.
His relationship with Salazar goes back a long way, but Landau's presence already suggested subtle support from the Trump circle for De la Espriella.
A few months later, with an effusive congratulatory message from the American president after his victory in the first round, support was reaffirmed.
But De la Espriella's relationship with the US is not new and goes far beyond politics.
Although precise dates are not publicly known, he himself has confirmed that he lived for many years in the United States and his four children—between the ages of 4 and 15—were born there.
In addition, there are his publications on social networks that give an account of his life in the United States from at least 2014 to 2024.
In 2023, he became naturalized as a US citizen.
It was also in that country where he developed a good part of his business network and even his emerging career as a singer.
And, without a doubt, in American politics he found one of his main references: Donald Trump.
Business, De la Espriella's first leg in the US
The writer and political strategist Ángel Beccassino related in his biography of Abelardo de la Espriella that, during his university years, the current winner of the elections frequently traveled to Miami and New York to sell emeralds.
"On each little trip I had US$2,000 or US$3,000 left, after paying expenses at the highest level. I was 19 years old and in New York I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria drinking champagne and eating lobster salad, the same one that Liz Taylor ordered," De la Espriella told Beccassino.
And, although as a lawyer he concentrated his work in Colombia, with clients ranging from politicians accused of having links with paramilitaries to entertainment figures, his links with the US remained.
According to an investigation by the media La Silla Vacía, De la Espriella owns, along with his wife, a US$5.1 million house in Miami and, between 2013 and 2023, he created or appeared in the documents of 14 companies in the state of Florida.
These companies range from a subsidiary of his law firm De la Espriella Lawyers Enterprise Inc to a restaurant that closed in 2025 after two years of operation.
According to documents released by Cuestión Pública, he had an apartment in the exclusive Brickell area of Miami between 2014 and 2020.
Publications on social networks give an account of his life in the United States from at least 2014 to 2024.
On social networks there is a record that in April 2023 he celebrated, for example, the opening of his restaurant in the city of Coral Gables, together with Gilberto Santa Rosa and his partner, Silvestre Dangond.
A few months later, it was he who gave a concert in the city of Doral, surrounded by cabaret dancers, to launch his album “Navegante”, in which he performed songs like New York, New York, by Frank Sinatra, and La vie en rose, by Édith Piaf.
In photos, he is also seen celebrating Thanksgiving with his family, receiving visits at his Miami home from former President Uribe and supporting the Miami Heat, the city's basketball team.
At the same time, he maintained strong ties with Colombia, where his law firm has three offices and has alcohol, clothing and real estate companies.
In September 2024, however, de la Espriella announced that he had moved with his family to Florence, Italy, a country of which he is also a citizen.
They lived there before returning to Colombia for the presidential campaign.
In an interview with Semana Magazine, De la Espriella's wife, Ana Lucía Pineda, pointed out that, if they lost the elections, they could continue with their prosperous life in another country.
And he added: “If we want, we will go to Colombia; if not, no,” a statement that went viral and was strongly criticized.
From US citizen to president of Colombia
On February 17, 2023, De la Espriella posted a photo on his Instagram account in which he appeared with a US flag in one hand and a certificate of US citizenship in the other.
“My 4 children were born here, I have been very happy in these lands next to them and my beloved @analu_pineda,” he wrote and described the United States as “the country of freedoms and opportunities” and “a great nation.”
“I also enjoy the tranquility that is so elusive to me in Colombia, due to the multiple security problems that I suffer there,” he noted.
Whether De la Espriella is an American and retains citizenship became a topic of discussion during the last stretch of the campaign.
President Petro himself—who, like De La Espriella, has Italian citizenship—said that “if you want firmness with the Colombian homeland, then let Abelardo renounce the American citizenship that requires him to be loyal above Colombia, to the United States.”
Having dual citizenship does not conflict with the requirements established by the Colombian Constitution to be president and which De la Espriella fully complies with.
However, some jurists have argued that US citizenship specifically could be incompatible with the office of President of the Republic.
“U.S. nationality poses legal, ethical and political obstacles for anyone who wants to be president of Colombia,” a group of 20 law professors and former justices of Colombian high courts said in a statement.
His argument is based on the fact that the oath of loyalty taken when becoming a US citizen requires renouncing “absolutely and totally all loyalty and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, State or sovereignty”, and implies assuming a series of obligations towards the US.
“The naturalized person must support the United States against any actor that is considered by that country as an enemy, eventually including Colombia,” explain the signing lawyers.
They conclude that, therefore, there is an “obvious incompatibility” that would prevent an American by adoption like De la Espriella from being president of Colombia.
His campaign responded by saying that this concept “is not true” and described the signatories of the statement as part of “President Petro's circle of lies.”
De la Espriella himself said in an interview: “I have a commitment to Colombia and I will be the president of the Colombians.”
And he added: “The interests of the Colombian people will always be first for me.”
In any case, it is possible that the election or possession of De la Espriella will be a source of litigation due to his US citizenship and a competent authority will have to make a definitive ruling.
The political and ideological closeness with Trump
Beyond his US citizenship and his businesses in Florida, De la Espriella maintains, in his words, “very good relations” with the US government and the Republican Party.
As he has said in interviews, he is a registered voter of that party and voted for Trump in 2024.
Perhaps his closest relationship is the one he maintains with Republican representative Maria Elvira Salazar, to whom he donated thousands of dollars for her campaigns in 2018 and 2023, according to the US Federal Election Commission website.
A few days before the first round in Colombia, Salazar announced his support, defining him as his “personal friend” and “friend of the United States.”
Likewise, De la Espriella has been close to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
He attended his inauguration in January 2025 and has said on several occasions that he is a “friend of Colombia” and that he will be “the first president of Hispanic origin in the United States.”
De la Espriella also donated to Trump's presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020 and to the Republican National Committee in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
That is why it was not surprising that, a few days after his success in the first round, the American president sent him an enthusiastic message of support: “Due to his enormous achievements in life and his political support for me, I am honored to give Abelardo my complete and total support.”
Trump noted that the election results would be “very important for the future of Colombia and its relationship with the United States.”
And he described De La Espriella as “an intelligent, strong and firm leader” while he called his rival, Iván Cepeda, a “radical Marxist.”
De la Espriella responded with an extensive message, accompanied by an image made with artificial intelligence of an eagle and a tiger, in which he referred to Trump as “a leader of mettle, who does not bow to ideological fashions or to the enemies of freedom.”
And he expressed that his government and that of Trump would fully agree on their values and security policies.
It is a coincidence that is also reflected in his government program, which proposes promoting a “Plan Colombia 2.0” financed by the United States and Israel.
Plan Colombia was a large US military assistance project to Colombia to combat the FARC and drug trafficking in the early 2000s.
He was betting on forced eradication to reduce coca crops, a strategy that the Petro government stopped using and the new president proposes to resume.
De la Espriella also agrees with some of the narratives that the Trump government has promoted to, for example, justify its bombings in international waters against boats supposedly loaded with drugs from Colombia and Venezuela.
In an interview with the Red Noticias channel, he spoke of “a corridor through which illegal migrants, members of criminal organizations, drugs, weapons and all kinds of things that end up affecting its national security arrive in the United States.”
Multiple analysts have pointed out that the similarities between Trump and De la Espriella are not only in substance but also in form and tone.
Both came to politics presenting themselves as wealthy and media-savvy 'outsiders', willing to take radical measures to change course.
Alleged irregularities
The closeness with Trump, however, distances De la Espriella from the Democrats and from being able to have a bipartisan relationship with the US during his government.
In fact, a few days before the second round, 11 Democratic legislators sent a letter to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; to the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, and the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, asking that De la Espriella be investigated for alleged links with paramilitaries and with Álex Saab, alleged front man of Nicolás Maduro.
Saab, who was a client of De la Espriella for years, was extradited to the United States on May 16 to respond to serious accusations of money laundering.
The letter from the American Democrats also rejected Trump's interference in the Colombian elections.
“Instead of campaigning for him, our government should be examining his ties to a designated terrorist organization, an accused money launderer, and possible financial irregularities related to companies and real estate transactions in Florida,” the lawmakers noted.
It is not the first suspicion of possible irregularities committed in the United States that has been raised against Abelardo de la Espriella.
Colombian journalist Daniel Coronell recently exposed documents that would prove that De la Espriella received hundreds of thousands of dollars from two companies that Álex Saab used for corrupt purposes.
Regarding his relationship with Saab, De la Espriella has said that he simply did his job as a lawyer and that in 2016 he recommended that he cooperate with the American justice system.
None of the accusations against him have been judicially proven, neither in the United States nor in Colombia.
Aside from the files, the closeness between De la Espriella and the United States resulted during the campaign in a furor in the community of Colombians abroad.
During the weeks of the elections, De la Espriella's supporters were promoting voting for him outside the voting stations with banners, t-shirts and tiger costumes, alluding to the nickname of the then candidate.
Colombian law strictly prohibits political advertising around voting stations, but outside it becomes unenforceable.
De la Espriella obtained 72% of the first round votes in the Colombian consulates in the US. In the second round, that percentage increased to 80%.
President Petro himself pointed out that the vote abroad explains, to a large extent, De la Espriella's advantage: “We are approaching the Peruvian situation, where it is the vote from abroad, especially in the United States, that elects the president,” he noted.
And he stated that all voting stations abroad were challenged.
If De la Espriella's victory in the vote is confirmed, Colombia will see a president who spent a good part of his life, his business and his relationships in the United States arriving at the House of Nariño.
What remains to be seen is how this will affect the course of his government starting next August 7.