The first results from Colombia’s presidential runoff election showed that right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, backed by Donald Trump, had narrowly won the vote.

The victory of de la Espriella, who has no prior political experience, signals a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to tackling the country’s long-running internal armed conflict and rising violence.

Throughout the campaign, de la Espriella pledged to intensify military pressure on illegal armed groups, drug trafficking networks and criminal organizations. He succeeded in defeating left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, a close ally of incumbent President Gustavo Petro.

Speaking after the initial results were released, de la Espriella said: “Today marks the beginning of a new era for our country. This era is built on the free and democratic will of millions of citizens who chose to believe in a great, secure, prosperous Colombia full of opportunities.”

Cepeda says he will await official results

According to the preliminary count, with more than 99% of ballots tallied in the runoff election, de la Espriella secured approximately 49.7% of the vote, while Cepeda received 48.7%.

Cepeda, who has not yet conceded defeat, said the preliminary results were neither official nor binding.

“When the official count is completed, the final results are known and the necessary verification procedures are finished, we will recognize the official outcome produced by that process,” Cepeda said.

Reuters reported that the verification process showed very little variation from the preliminary counts recorded during the first round of voting on May 31.

De la Espriella, who grew up in Colombia’s Caribbean region, drew particularly strong support from that part of the country. Addressing a large crowd gathered in the coastal city of Barranquilla after the first results emerged, de la Espriella, who has adopted the nickname “El Tigre” (The Tiger), declared: “Tonight is the beginning of a new story for the nation. Tonight a new era begins, a change of order begins.”

He said he would govern for all Colombians, including those who voted for his opponent, and pledged loyalty to and protection of Colombia’s 1991 constitution.

At celebrations in Barranquilla, supporters wore Colombia’s yellow national football jersey and waved Colombian flags.

With images of de la Espriella projected behind the stage, supporters chanted “Stand firm for the homeland” and “Petro out!” as fireworks lit the sky. Some supporters wore hats bearing the slogan “Make Colombia Great Again,” echoing those worn by supporters of US President Donald Trump.

Trump reacted to the results in a Truth Social post, writing: “BIG won!”

One supporter, Patricia, told reporters: “We are tired of the murders in this country and of this government’s bureaucracy. Now we finally have a president from the coastal region.”

Another supporter said: “We are proud of the Tiger. We hope he transforms the country and, above all, creates a new nation where we will have jobs and greater security.”

Supporters of Cepeda, who narrowly lost the election, also voiced concerns on the streets of Barranquilla.

Catalina La Grande, a student and activist who supports Cepeda, told the BBC: “There is a visible sense of unease in the air. Such a narrow margin worries us because it reflects how divided the country is and the enormous challenges we face in defending democracy, peace and human rights.”

Another young voter backing Cepeda, Maria, said the results showed a divided country but noted that the public had remained peaceful.

“Given the level of polarization we are experiencing, the absence of violence in the streets is a positive development,” she said.

The sharp divisions between the candidates have fueled concerns that unrest could emerge if some opposition groups refuse to accept the outcome.

Late on Sunday night, clashes were reported between protesters and police in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city. Demonstrators reportedly burned US flags, while police used tear gas to disperse large crowds angered by de la Espriella’s victory.

President Gustavo Petro is also reported to be considering challenging the result. In a post on X, Petro said that based on the preliminary count, “no one can be declared president” and alleged that the security of some polling stations had been compromised. He called for an audit of the voting software but provided no evidence to support the claims.

Who is Abelardo de la Espriella?

De la Espriella, who has no political background, is a lawyer and businessman. During his legal career, he represented clients including Alex Saab, an ally of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who has faced money laundering charges in the US, and David Murcia Guzman, one of Colombia’s most notorious fraudsters.

De la Espriella says he handled those cases in his capacity as a defense attorney.

Often compared to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele because of his security policies and distinctive beard, de la Espriella and his supporters frequently wear Colombia’s national football jersey at rallies and on social media. Critics accuse him of politicizing the national team shirt.

He is also known for regularly addressing campaign crowds from behind bulletproof glass panels.

Colombia’s internal armed conflict has persisted for decades, but violence has intensified in recent years. Armed groups and criminal organizations, including dissident factions of the FARC, the ELN and the Clan del Golfo, have doubled their membership over the past five years.

Competition for control of lucrative cocaine trafficking routes and illegal mining operations has further escalated the violence. Fighting along the Colombia-Venezuela border last year displaced tens of thousands of people. Cocaine production in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country has reached record levels.

Critics of President Petro argue that his “total peace” strategy, which prioritizes negotiations with armed groups, has failed, claiming that such groups have used ceasefire arrangements to expand their territorial control and influence.

De la Espriella has pledged to cancel all negotiations with illegal armed groups and increase military pressure to restore order.

As part of that agenda, he has promised closer cooperation with the US, the construction of massive prisons in Colombia’s forests, a smaller state apparatus and reforms to the healthcare system.

Having lived and worked in Miami for many years, de la Espriella has held US citizenship since 2023. During the election campaign, he received support from Donald Trump, who said de la Espriella would “stop illegal migration, fight crime and drugs, and restore law and order.”

Before the election, Trump also said de la Espriella would feel “the full support and strength of the United States” behind him.

Although Colombia has historically been one of Washington’s closest allies in the region, relations have become strained in recent years due to sharp disagreements between President Trump and President Petro over migration policy, tariffs and military intervention in Latin America.

De la Espriella’s election also aligns with a broader trend across Latin America, where security concerns have pushed politics to the right. His victory was welcomed by other conservative leaders across the region.

Argentine President Javier Milei said Colombians had “chosen the path of economic freedom, prosperity and uncompromising security” and had declared that enough was enough to transnational organized crime and drug trafficking.

Chile’s José Antonio Kast said: “A new era of freedom is beginning for Colombia, one that will allow the country to regain security and prosperity.”

“Dialog,” an exclusive, highly secretive association founded by billionaire technology investor and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, has had its internal records exposed online. The leaked documents reveal the identities of influential figures spanning US politics, finance, national security, and technology who have participated in the group’s private gatherings.

According to a report by WIRED, the society’s internal directories and registry records were left exposed on the internet, laying bare the attendee lists for its highly restricted events.

Established by Thiel in 2006, Dialog is an invitation-only private organization that convenes US officials, foreign government representatives, and Silicon Valley executives for off-the-record annual retreats. For nearly two decades, the organization has consistently declined to disclose its membership rolls.

The exposure began when a directory embedded in the source code of the group’s website was discovered by Swiss hacker maia arson crimew. Known for previously exposing the US government’s No Fly List and breaching the systems of security camera firm Verkada, the hacker told WIRED that the directory was uncovered via an anonymous tip. WIRED independently verified the authenticity of the directory’s contents.

Separately, a source provided WIRED with the registration list for Dialog’s upcoming 2026 retreat.

The list features the names of 222 individuals, detailing each attendee’s membership status and designation, including classifications such as “active member” and “guest.” The retreat is scheduled to take place from August 12 to 16, 2026, at the Powerscourt Hotel, located just outside Dublin, Ireland.

The leaked data also details a program composed of closed-door sessions. Panel titles include: “Does Money (Really?) Buy Happiness,” “Bring Back Nuclear Power,” “Navigating WWIII,” “Battlefield Technologies,” and “How Is Your Sex Life?”

Other scheduled discussions include a session titled “Start a Cult,” led by the founder of the Christian networking site Pray.com, and “Start a Party,” conducted by a former White House national security official.

While some of the documents contain the standard material of typical thought-leadership conferences, they also reveal an extraordinary convergence of institutional and private power.

Among the registry records is General Alexus Grynkewich, the Commander of US Air Forces Central Command who took office as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO and Commander of US European Command in July 2025. The leaked list indicates that Grynkewich has attended Dialog events since 2021.

The website directory also lists current Trump administration officials, two US senators, six members of the “PayPal Mafia,” a former Middle Eastern intelligence chief, and a sitting US ambassador. These names appear alongside the founders and executives of some of the United States’ largest surveillance, data brokerage, and advertising data firms.

These industry executives appear in the directory alongside the very regulators and lawmakers who oversee their sectors.

For instance, Dialog’s chairman, Auren Hoffman, co-founded SafeGraph, a location data broker, and LiveRamp, an identity-resolution firm—two pivotal suppliers in the consumer data economy.

Hoffman is listed in the directory alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who shapes financial data regulations, and Senator Ted Cruz, the Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the Federal Trade Commission and data privacy authorities.

Similarly, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale is listed in the same association directory as Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Representative Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the intelligence agencies with which Palantir contracts.

None of the individuals named in the WIRED report responded to requests for comment. Raffi Grinberg, who identifies himself on LinkedIn as Dialog’s executive director and is the author of the self-help book How to Be a Grown-Up, also did not respond to inquiries.

The registry records appear to document not only who holds membership in Dialog, but also who has confirmed attendance for upcoming events.

Of the 222 individuals registered for the 2026 event, 87 are marked as first-time attendees, according to the leaked records.

Others have histories with the group spanning more than a decade, with a select few dating back to the society’s founding 20 years ago. None of the registrants, including Grynkewich, utilized official government email addresses to register.

Instead, all participants registered using personal or corporate email accounts, effectively keeping their correspondence and attendance outside the purview of public records laws that apply to government email systems.

According to WIRED, the primary thread uniting the attendee list—beyond titles and offices—is a shared interest in artificial intelligence, longevity, and the near future.

When prompted on the registration form to predict future trends, registrants repeatedly returned to a central theme: that artificial intelligence will thoroughly restructure commerce, warfare, education, and faith within a few years.

Several participants predicted mass unemployment and a subsequent return to labor unions and state-sponsored programs. Others anticipated an “AI winter,” domestic terrorism targeting data centers, defendants choosing AI-powered attorneys over public defenders, or a religious revival triggered by these technological shifts.

Another registrant predicted that “societal decay will continue to accelerate.”

Members also listed personal skills on their forms, ranging from “funhouse construction,” accent mimicry, backcountry skiing, and urban exploration to “meditative and psychedelic exploration into the nature of reality.”

One participant listed “compassion and existential dread” as personal talents, while another listed “dinner parties, keeping secrets, remembering birthdays.”

The book recommendations listed by participants are classic and optimization-oriented. Recommended texts include works by Marcus Aurelius and Milan Kundera, alongside Annie Duke’s Thinking in Bets, Peter Attia’s Outlive, and—recommended by at least one attendee—Thiel’s own book, Zero to One.

Dialog also facilitates personal matchmaking. The registration form asks participants, “Are you looking for love?” and offers options to opt into a “future matchmaking” database as a “Single Male,” “Single Female,” or “Other.”

A separate website, dating.dialog.org, hosts an application promoted with the slogan: “meaningful connections for extraordinary people.”

The form also collects sensitive personal data, including the “political leaning” of each participant. Dialog pledges on the form that this information “will never be shared on the app or with other attendees.” However, this data and the matchmaking responses were both compromised in the leak.

The records are maintained on Airtable, a commercial database platform. For each participant, Dialog records their membership status, a history of all retreats attended, a biography, their city of residence, and a personal access token.

The leaked registry contains high-profile names that do not appear in the group’s public-facing directory. Among them are Randy Kroszner, a former Federal Reserve Governor who currently serves on the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee; Hallie Hoffman, former general counsel and acting chief of staff for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL); Peter Goettler, President of the Cato Institute; Ryan Stowers, executive director of the Charles Koch Foundation; and Roger Myerson, a Nobel laureate economist from the University of Chicago.

The list also includes a contingent of Google and Google DeepMind executives, including Tom Lue, who manages global relations for the company’s pioneer AI division, as well as Washington Post national security correspondent Souad Mekhennet.

The remainder of the roster consists of hedge fund and private equity billionaires, current and former foreign officials, television actors, bestselling authors, and religious leaders.

Among the internal documents left exposed on the database was a guide for event moderators.

The document instructs moderators to remind participants that all discussions are strictly “off-the-record” and that comments must be concise and “non-obvious.”

Moderators are also instructed to keep introductions brief to “avoid status signifiers” in rooms crowded with senators, high-ranking officials, and corporate leaders.

Since its inception, Dialog has operated with a minimal public footprint. It hosts at least one meeting per year where seating is pre-assigned, sessions are structured by moderators, and strict non-attribution rules apply to all remarks.

According to Axios, which first reported on the group’s plans to establish a physical campus in the Washington, DC area, past meetings have been held at the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain in Arizona and the San Clemente Palace in Venice, Italy.

The society has frequently been described as a technology-sector equivalent of the Bilderberg meetings, where Western political and business elites convene behind closed doors.

In 2022, statistician Andrew Gelman published one of Dialog’s invitation letters on his blog, revealing the event’s format and a registration fee exceeding $16,000.

The invitation list for the group’s 2014 meeting re-entered public scrutiny this year after the US Department of Justice released files showing Jeffrey Epstein was among approximately 150 invitees. Whether Epstein actually attended the meeting remains unclear.

The US Senate has rejected a resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s authority to conduct military operations against Iran.

According to a report by CBS, the motion to advance the resolution received 47 votes in favor and 48 against. Consequently, the measure designed to restrict Trump’s military powers regarding Iran failed to pass the Senate.

Four Republican senators—Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul—backed the resolution, voting in favor alongside the vast majority of Democrats. Senator John Fetterman was the sole Democrat to vote against the measure.

Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Josh Hawley, as well as Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Booker, did not participate in the vote. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was also absent from the vote.

In recent days, members of Congress have been demanding the disclosure of the contents of an agreement reached between the US and Iran, the details of which have been kept classified.

The resolution, introduced by Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, directed the removal of the US Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran.

Under the terms of the resolution, the continuation of any such military activities would require a formal declaration of war or specific statutory authorization from Congress.

Under the US Constitution, the power to declare war belongs exclusively to Congress. However, many US leaders argue that this rule does not apply to short-term military operations or situations where the country faces an imminent threat.

In May, the Senate had supported the advancement of a similar resolution aimed at limiting the president’s military authority regarding Iran.

That vote marked the first time such a measure succeeded after seven prior attempts, with four Republican senators voting in favor of the resolution during that process as well. However, at the end of that month, Republicans in the House of Representatives withdrew the bill.

In March, another resolution aimed at limiting Trump’s war powers failed to secure majority support in the Senate and was blocked.

The US and Iran announced on June 15 that they had reached a peace agreement. While the agreement was concluded electronically, a formal signing ceremony is scheduled to take place on June 19 in Geneva.