Trump-backed hardliner faces leftist in high-stakes Colombia vote

Colombians pick a new president on Sunday, a choice between a hard-right White House-backed lawyer and a leftist senator that will decide the fate of the country's stumbling peace process and strained ties with Washington.

Up to 41 million voters will choose between frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella and his rival Ivan Cepeda -- the latest in a series of Latin American elections hyper-polarized between left and right.

Security has dominated a campaign marred by bomb attacks and the murder of a leading conservative presidential candidate in broad daylight in Bogota.

De la Espriella, a dual US-Colombian national who calls himself "The Tiger," won May's first-round vote by promising to wage war on drug-running guerrilla groups who refused to sign a 2016 peace deal.

He told AFP that if elected, he wants US backing for a 90-day campaign of airstrikes against armed groups producing coca, the main ingredient in cocaine.

Cepeda is a 63-year-old senator and human rights defender and has been a key figure behind the policy of negotiating "total peace" with armed groups.

He is the son of a communist senator killed by right-wing paramilitaries and is the political heir to outgoing President Gustavo Petro -- who is constitutionally barred from running.

Critics say Petro's leftist government has allowed armed groups to grow richer from trafficking, expand their territory and gain power.

While Cepeda recently told AFP that he would "take stock" of peace talks and "make the necessary changes," he has long favored dialogue over an iron fist security approach.

De la Espriella meanwhile hopes to replicate the right-wing wave that has swept rightist candidates to power in Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras.

He advocates the right to carry arms, the construction of mega-prisons, fracking, cutting the size of the state, and has said that it would be "ideal" to dollarize Colombia's economy.

From behind bulletproof glass, with a military salute, he has rallied support with a cry of "stand firm for the homeland!"

During the campaign, he showed off his singing skills and the millionaire life he led in Italy before the campaign, while dismissing criticism that he has represented a string of shady figures in his legal career. AFP