In Latin America, the so-called "blue tide" (a wave of right-wing governments) is spreading.
According to Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) on the 14th (local time), right-leaning Keiko Fujimori, 51, the Popular Force candidate, is narrowly ahead in the June 7 presidential runoff with 50.052% of the vote, compared with 49.948% for Roberto Sánchez, 57, the Together for Peru candidate.
With 98.5% of the ballots counted, the gap between the two candidates is 18,832 votes. In particular, as overseas ballots are tallied, the margin is widening, and local media say it will not be easy for Sánchez to reverse the trend.
Election authorities in Peru expect to announce the official results around mid-July. Problems such as illegible handwriting, missing signatures, and smudges were found on as many as 400,000 ballots, prompting election officials to begin a recount.
Financial markets are hoping for a victory by the right-leaning Fujimori. After Fujimori pulled off a comeback in the runoff, Peru's stock index rose as much as 2% intraday on the 12th, and the weakening Peruvian sol rebounded.
According to Bloomberg News, Thierry Larose, an emerging-markets portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management, said, "Markets have stabilized on expectations that votes from overseas citizens, who traditionally lean to the right, will deliver Fujimori's victory."
In Colombia's presidential runoff on the 21st, far-right Abelardo de la Espriella, 48, also holds the upper hand over far-left Iván Cepeda, 64. A poll released on the 10th showed Espriella, the Guardians of the Homeland candidate, leading Cepeda 52.6% to 44.8%, outside the margin of error.
Espriella topped the first-round vote with 43.7% after campaigning on hard-line public-safety measures such as building an "El Salvador-style" mega-prison, along with cuts to public spending and pro-business, pro-market policies. Cepeda received 40.9%.
Analysts say the reasons right-leaning candidates are gaining strength in Latin American presidential races include a combination of public-safety deterioration from entrenched cartel crime, fiscal deficits from populist giveaways, and the United States' "Western Hemisphere strategy," which has ramped up since the launch of the second Trump administration.
The Trump administration has recently prioritized policies to block China's diplomatic and economic influence, which has penetrated deeply into Latin American markets, and to stem chronic illegal immigration at the source beyond the border.