{"id":481722,"date":"2025-09-06T19:42:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/former-colombian-senate-president-announces-he-will-run-for-president-in-2026\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T19:42:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:42:58","slug":"former-colombian-senate-president-announces-he-will-run-for-president-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/former-colombian-senate-president-announces-he-will-run-for-president-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Colombian Senate President announces he will run for President in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"Bogot\u00e1.-<\/strong> Former Colombian Senate President Efra\u00edn Cepeda, one of the biggest opponents of the Government<\/a> of the current president, Gustavo Petro, announced this Saturday that he will run for President in the 2026 elections.\n\nDuring a Conservative Party event in Ibagu\u00e9, capital of the department of Tolima (center), Senator Cepeda stated: “Before this beautiful people of Tolima, I am running for the Presidency of the Republic”.<\/strong>\n\n\n

Read more: Senator Omar Fernandez delivers inclusive park for children with disabilities<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nCepeda, 75 years old, was President of the Senate between 2024 and 2025, during which time he received harsh criticism from Petro, who even verbally offended him in some public acts for opposing his reforms.\n\nThe conservative candidate, who is an industrial economist and a specialist in high finance, has been a senator since 1994 and is one of the most visible faces of his party, especially since he verbally clashed with the president and became one of the main figures of the opposition.\n\nThe congressman thus enters a contest in which at least 69 Colombians have registered committees to seek the signatures that will allow them to endorse their candidacy for the presidential elections of May 2026.\n\nIn the Registry’s list, well-known names appear, such as those of former ministers Mauricio Lizcano, Mauricio C\u00e1rdenas, and Luis Gilberto Murillo; the former mayor of Bogot\u00e1, Claudia L\u00f3pez; the journalist Vicky D\u00e1vila; the lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella or the former governor of the department of Antioquia, An\u00edbal Gaviria.\n\nAlso listed are former Senator David Luna, former director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) Juan Daniel Oviedo, and former Interior Minister Daniel Palacios.\n\n\n

Besides these 69 pre-candidates, Colombia has the presidential candidates proposed by the parties, as is the case with Cepeda.<\/p>\n\n\nIn that sense, the right-wing Democratic Center is seeking the Presidency with senators Paloma Valencia, Mar\u00eda Fernanda Cabal, Andr\u00e9s Guerra and Paola Holgu\u00edn, as well as Miguel Uribe Londo\u00f1o, father of the murdered congressman Miguel Uribe Turbay.\n\nIn the deck of the official Pacto Hist\u00f3rico appear senators Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Pizarro, Gloria Fl\u00f3rez and Iv\u00e1n Cepeda; former ministers Gloria In\u00e9s Ram\u00edrez, Susana Muhamad and Carolina Corcho; social leader Al\u00ed Bant\u00fa Ashanti; former director of the Department of Social Prosperity Gustavo Bol\u00edvar and former mayor of Medell\u00edn Daniel Quintero.\n\nMeanwhile, former senator Juan Manuel Gal\u00e1n will run for the New Liberalism party and former mayor of Medell\u00edn Sergio Fajardo will do so for Dignity & Compromise.\n\nThe first round of the Colombian presidential elections will take place on May 31, 2026, and, if necessary, the second will be held on June 21.\n\nThe winner of the elections will assume the head of state of Colombia on August 7 of next year.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bogot\u00e1.- Former Colombian Senate President Efra\u00edn Cepeda, one of the biggest opponents of the Government of the current president, Gustavo Petro, announced this Saturday that he will run for President in the 2026 elections. During a Conservative Party event in Ibagu\u00e9, capital of the department of Tolima (center), Senator Cepeda stated: “Before this beautiful people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":481723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[41886,40999,41286,40456],"class_list":["post-481722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-colombian","tag-former-president","tag-presidency","tag-senate"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-21jI","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/7e407111ed0cb02a7375baffb46dbc14339bf2f0w.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/7e407111ed0cb02a7375baffb46dbc14339bf2f0w.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}