The Fort Worth Press - Colombian leftist candidate calls for calm after post-vote violence

White House-backed lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won Sunday's presidential runoff by less than a percentage point, marking the end of Colombia's first-ever leftist government and a return to right-wing rule.

The razor-thin results prompted upheaval in the major cities of Bogota and Cali, where demonstrators clashed with riot police and started fires on Sunday night.

"I wish to make a very cordial appeal for composure and calm," said defeated leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda, stressing he had not called for violent demonstrations.

Any protests, he said, should "remain strictly within the bounds of tranquility and peaceful mobilization."

With almost all the votes counted, De la Espriella held 49.66 percent of the vote versus Cepeda's 48.70 percent.

With about a quarter of a million votes separating the two, the left-wing senator has so far stopped short of conceding defeat, saying the initial results must first be cross-checked.

A definitive tally is expected on Wednesday.

But the atmosphere remains tense after a deeply polarizing election campaign.

In Colombia's third-largest city, Cali, protesters burned American flags and clashed with riot police, some wielding steel bars as officers fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

There was also unrest in the capital Bogota, where demonstrators burned tires and hurled bricks at police.

- Trading blows -

De la Espriella, who has received US President Donald Trump's enthusiastic backing, has pledged to crack down on the country's myriad armed groups via bombing campaigns and the construction of mega-prisons.

"Don't even think about stoking violence," De la Espriella warned Cepeda in a triumphant speech in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla on Sunday night.

"The Tiger can still bite you harder than he has bitten you at the ballot box," he said in reference to the feline nickname he gave himself.

While urging restraint, Cepeda called on his rival not to fan the flames.

His supporters, he said, were a movement that was "very large in number" and "half the country in political terms."

De la Espriella will enter office in August, taking the reins from leftist President Gustavo Petro.

During the campaign he called for the left to be "gutted" but later toned down his words.

Cepeda is the son of a communist senator who was assassinated by paramilitaries in 1994, during a period of violence against the left that saw over 5,700 people killed.

"We have a long history of resistance, and we are very seasoned; we have defeated many authoritarian governments, many violent politicians, so no, don't come threatening us," he said Monday.

T.M.Dan--TFWP