Expats and Nomads: Your City Voted Against Colombia’s New President

Politics · Colombia

The Colombia election map tells two stories at once: a country that chose the hard right, and a string of big cities, including the capital, that voted the other way.

Colombia has a new president, and his politics are a sharp turn to the right. Abelardo de la Espriella, a combative lawyer running on security and order, narrowly beat the leftist senator Iván Cepeda.

But look closer at where the votes came from. If you are a foreigner living in one of Colombia’s big cities, there is a good chance your neighbours voted the other way.

The national contest was extraordinarily tight. De la Espriella took just under fifty percent against almost forty-nine for Cepeda, a gap of around two hundred and fifty thousand votes out of more than twenty-five million cast.

Turnout was the highest in the country’s history, with about sixty-four percent of registered voters taking part. A race this close means that where each side ran up its margins matters a great deal.

What the Colombia election map shows

The new president won the national count, but he lost most of the country’s largest cities. According to department-level results compiled by the Colombian daily El Tiempo, Cepeda carried Bogotá by a clear margin.

In the capital, the single biggest base of foreign professionals and diplomats, Cepeda took about two and a quarter million votes to De la Espriella’s one point nine million. The capital simply did not back the man who won.

The pattern held along the coast and the Pacific. Cepeda carried the departments that contain Cartagena, Santa Marta and Barranquilla, the Caribbean cities where many foreigners settle for the beaches and the colonial old town.

He also took Valle del Cauca, home to Cali, the salsa capital, and swept the southern Pacific departments of Cauca, Nariño and Chocó by wide margins.

These are among the poorest and most conflict-touched parts of Colombia, and they have leaned left for years. For a foreign reader, the takeaway is simpler: the coast and the south did not move with the national result.

Where the map breaks: Medellín

There is one big exception, and it matters because it is the favourite of so many newcomers. Medellín and its surrounding department, Antioquia, voted heavily for the winner.

De la Espriella took roughly sixty-four percent there, one of his strongest results anywhere. So the tidy story that every expat city voted left is not true.

The coffee region followed Medellín rather than Bogotá. Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío, the green hills drawing more foreign retirees each year, all went to the new president.

What the Colombia election map means if you live there

First, a caution against a tempting shortcut. A city voting for a left candidate in a national race does not mean it is run by the left.

Bogotá’s mayor, Carlos Fernando Galán, is a centrist independent, not an ally of the outgoing president. Medellín’s mayor, Federico Gutiérrez, is firmly on the right and backed the winner.

So the practical reality for a foreign resident is a layering of politics. The president sets national direction on security, taxes and foreign policy, while the mayor and governor you actually deal with may answer to a different political tradition entirely.

That gap is the real lesson of the map. The services that shape daily life, from local transport to permits to policing on your street, run through city and regional governments that the national swing does not automatically change.

It also explains the mood you may notice. In Bogotá and Cali, where most voters backed the loser, the result landed hard, and Cali saw protests on the night.

In Medellín, the same result was greeted as a win. For a newcomer trying to read the room, knowing which Colombia you have moved to is the most useful thing the map can tell you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Colombia’s big cities vote against the new president?

Mostly, yes. Bogotá, Cali and the Caribbean cities of Cartagena, Santa Marta and Barranquilla all leaned to the losing leftist candidate, even though the right-wing Abelardo de la Espriella won the national vote.

Which expat city was the exception on the Colombia election map?

The exception was Medellín, the digital-nomad favourite, where the surrounding department of Antioquia voted heavily for the winner with about sixty-four percent and the coffee region around it went the same way.

Does my city voting left mean it is governed by the left?

Not necessarily, because a city can favour a left candidate nationally while being run locally by a centrist or a conservative, and the two layers move on separate clocks. Bogotá’s mayor is a centrist independent while Medellín’s sits on the right.