Right-wing candidate claims victory in Colombian election

**Ankur Desai** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankur Desai, and in the early hours of Monday, the 22nd of June, these are our main stories. The right-wing candidate, Albalado de la Esprilla, has claimed victory in Colombia's presidential election. Pakistani and Qatari mediators say the first round of Iran-U.S. talks in Switzerland have ended with encouraging progress made. And reaction from Bolivia, where police and soldiers used bulldozers to clear roads blocked by anti-government protestors for more than six weeks. Also in this podcast, the clock is ticking on the future of the British prime minister. Reports suggest he will set out a plan to step down on Monday. And more World Cup history.
Cape Verde scored their first ever goals at the World Cup, but did they hold on against Uruguay?
We begin in Colombia, where the right-wing candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, has claimed victory in the presidential election.

**Abelardo de la Espriella** (1:16)
This is the night that marks the beginning of a new story for the nation, the night when a new era begins, a change of course, the homeland of miracles.

**Ankur Desai** (1:30)
Mr. de la Espriella, who was endorsed by President Trump, is on course for a narrow win, with nearly all the votes counted. Both candidates had promised to tackle the widespread violence by illegal armed groups, which has marred Colombia for the past decades. But Mr. de la Espriella put forward a more heavy handed approach.
President Trump responded to the result writing on social media, he won big. Just before recording this podcast, I spoke to our South America correspondent, Oni Wells in Barranquilla in Northern Colombia, who began by explaining why the results were being disputed.

**Ioni Wells** (2:07)
Here in Barranquilla, he addressed supporters who were cheering him on, all of them wearing the yellow Colombian national football shirt. And he said that this was a new chapter for the country and that this would be a win not just for Colombians who voted for him, but also those who didn't vote for him. Now his left wing rival, Ivan Cepeda and the current president, Gustavo Petro, both have said that this result is not yet official, but what they're referring to there is how this is the, it's essentially the initial count. There is then a process of verification, which is already pretty much underway. Quite a lot of the votes have already been verified. And so Espriella has already had the recognition from many other world leaders. But I think certainly it looks like Ivan Cepeda and the current president Gustavo Petro are planning to challenge the results if they can. It looks like Gustavo Petro himself is already sowing doubt, accusing some polling stations of being compromised, although he hasn't provided any evidence of that yet.

**Ankur Desai** (3:08)
And what more do we know about him? And what's he promising to do if he does become president?

**Ioni Wells** (3:13)
Well, Espriella really defined his campaign by taking a very hard line approach when it comes to security. He said that he would scrap the current government's policy of prioritising negotiation with armed groups and cartels in Colombia, instead saying that he would introduce a very tough military crackdown, including aerial bombardment campaigns, fumigation campaigns over coca crops, the crops that produce cocaine, but also working more closely with the United States, for example. He's also pledged to build mega prisons in Colombia's jungles for some of the country's highest offending criminals as well. He has certainly in that sense modelled himself, I think, on the security policies of other right-wing leaders in the region, including El Salvador's President Bukele, President Aboua in Ecuador as well. This is part of a wider trend, really, of Latin America shifting to the right. He is the latest in a stream of elections that have seen countries in this region shift to the right, much to the pleasure of Donald Trump in the White House, who has very much endorsed these security policies.

**Ankur Desai** (4:16)
Ioni Wells in Colombia.
Pakistani and Qatari mediators say the first round of talks between Iran and the US in Switzerland have ended with encouraging progress made. In a joint statement, they said the parties had agreed a roadmap to a lasting peace agreement in 60 days and a mechanism to end the fighting in Lebanon. The Vice President, JD Vance, struck an upbeat note as he arrived for the talks.

**JD Vance** (4:42)
What the President has asked us to do is turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran and to extend an outstretched hand that says to the people of Iran that if your leadership is willing to give up being a driver of regional instability, if they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions for the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with that country.