Colombia's Youth Face a Runoff Between Two Extremes — And Decide What Comes Next

On June 21, 2026, young Colombians will help decide one of the most polarizing presidential runoffs in their country's recent history. Far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist senator Iván Cepeda emerged from a crowded first-round field on May 31, with de la Espriella taking 43.7% of the vote and Cepeda close behind at 40.9%, a margin of less than three percentage points. Neither candidate reached the majority needed to win outright, sending the country to a second round run-off that has been described as setting Colombia on "two sharply diverging paths" by PBS. For a generation of young voters who came of age under the country's first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, this election is a choice about what kind of country they want to live in, and whether their vote has any say in it at all.

Colombia's youth are a force that neither candidate can afford to ignore. Cepeda, in refusing to immediately accept the first-round results, explicitly called on the country's youth to join his cause, framing the runoff as a fight against what he called fascism. De la Espriella, a self-described outsider who built his profile through high-profile litigation and a slick social media operation, has leaned heavily on digital platforms to court a generation that lives online. Both understand that in a contest this close, the young electorate is where their victory may be derived from.

A Generation Shaped by Violence

Young Colombians are voting in a shadow of political violence marring their nation. The 2026 race saw the assassination of the most popular presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe Turbay, who was shot at a Bogotá campaign rally in June 2025 and died two months later. This was the first killing of a Colombian presidential candidate in over three decades. The alleged gunman was a teenager, hired by a local gang, a detail that struck a particular nerve among young people who saw a child weaponized in a conflict they did not create. Intuitively, the shooting of Uribe reframed the entire campaign around a single, urgent question: safety.

That fear has pushed Colombia, like much of Latin America, toward candidates promising heavy-handed crackdowns on crime and security. Young voters frustrated by the lack of opportunity and the persistence of corruption have grown disillusioned with progressive leaders who pitched structural reform but struggled to deliver immediate stability. As such, youth-led protests across Colombia have made consistent demands for their safety. De la Espriella's campaign, with its pledges to build mega-prisons and shrink the state, speaks directly to their frustration. For many young Colombians weighing their immediate security against longer-term democratic concerns, it is a difficult pull to resist.

A Potential Continuation of Petro’s Legacy

This is also the first generation to vote in the aftermath of Gustavo Petro's presidency, the first leftist president in Colombia's history, and their relationship with his legacy is complicated. Petro won young voters in 2022 on promises of reducing inequality, reforming labor, and breaking the grip of Colombia's traditional political establishment. His government did raise the minimum wage significantly and passed a labor reform expanding worker protections, which were tangible wins for young people entering a difficult job market and expanded youth opportunity. But his term was also clouded by corruption scandals, record cocaine production, and a "total peace" process that critics argue empowered the very armed groups it sought to disarm. Cepeda, running as the heir to Petro, carries both the positive and negative aspects of the prior presidency.

For young Colombians, then, the runoff poses a genuine dilemma. Most of what Cepeda aims to deliver follow Petro’s legacy, but prioritizing economic opportunity, for example, may be somewhat misaligned given the pressing threat of crime. The protests made under Petro’s government represent concerns that have not had solutions, and a vote for Cepeda may perpetuate the loop of passivity. A vote for de la Espriella is a vote for order, but at the cost of empowering a candidate whose vision of governing through force and reshaping education around conservative values alarms those who fear a democratic backslide, and sends Colombia in the opposite direction.

What The Involvement of Colombian Youth Will Decide

Turnout in the first round hovered around 56%, meaning nearly half of registered Colombians stayed home even in a historic election. The question for June 21 is whether young people will show up — and which way they break if they do. Many of them young, centrist voters who reject both extremes will either be forced one way or the other, or will not vote at all. What is clear, though, is that Colombia's youth are not disengaged in the way disillusionment might suggest. They are watching, organizing online and in the streets, and acutely aware that the future of Colombian democracy, safety, and the country's overall political direction for the next four years will fall on them. The danger, as in so many young democracies, is that a generation exhausted by violence and broken promises decides the system itself is not worth their participation. On June 21, Colombia's young voters will answer a question larger than who becomes president: whether they still believe their voice can change the country they will inherit.