Colombia is heading to the polls to choose a new president.

The election is being held after months of public recrimination between current left-wing President Gustavo Petro and his US counterpart Donald Trump over a number of issues including drug trafficking and American intervention in the region.

Colombia's constitution prohibits Petro seeking re-election and he has thrown his support behind Iván Cepeda. Challenging him are right-wing political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella and centre-right Paloma Valencia.

The outcome of the election could redefine which countries the Latin American nation aligns itself with and how the government intends to tackle drug gangs amid spiralling violence.

As polls opened, Petro told a crowd in the capital, Bogotá, that Sunday's vote would "determine where Colombia is headed" and would "define the [country's] destiny".

Voting began at 08:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and will close at 16:00 on Sunday.

None of the candidates appear likely to win an outright majority, with a run-off vote expected on 21 June.

Polling suggests Cepeda has the greatest support, with de la Espriella his next-closest rival.

Cepeda has promised to continue with the Petro administration's policy of "total peace", which sought negotiated settlements with armed insurgent groups that engage in drug trafficking – though talks have stalled or fallen apart and there has been renewed violence.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a recent report that armed conflict in Colombia last year had affected civilians the most in a decade.

Just hours before voting began, authorities in the northern Cesar region relocated a polling station following a drone attack on security forces that left a soldier injured, local media report.

Colombia's defence ministry has deployed 408,000 soldiers and police to secure the election.

Election monitors say that more than a quarter of Colombia's municipalities face some risk of violence as the country's 41 million voters head to the polls.

De la Espriella and Valencia have vowed to launch a military crackdown if elected.

Colombia's presidential hopefuls have campaigned amid persistent political violence, with one candidate, Miguel Uribe, fatally shot last summer.

Valencia subsequently stepped into his shoes as the established conservative party's candidate, and has sought electoral success by courting centrist voters to turn away from Cepeda and de la Espriella.

As well as taking a tough stance on security and speaking out against Petro's "total peace" strategy, Valencia has been characterised as having a strong belief in individual freedoms.

She has touted policies such as reducing the size of the state, eliminating wealth taxes and offering government loans to entrepeneurs.

While Valencia has frequently appeared alongside Colombia's former right-wing President Álvaro Uribe at campaign rallies, de la Espriella – a lawyer and businessman by trade – has cast himself as maverick newcomer.

He has refused to govern "with the same old crowd", a reference to the pre-Petro political elite, and expressed his admiration for Trump, libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei and El Salvador's hardline leader Nayib Bukele.

De la Espriella has characterised himself as "the tiger", vowed to combat crime with an "iron fist", and could be seen during the campaign chanting patriotic slogans at rallies while wearing a bulletproof vest or behind bulletproof glass.

Both de la Espriella and Valencia have expressed a desire to restore Colombia's close security alliance with the US.

Cepeda has insisted, just as Petro did, that Colombia should not be a "vassal state" to the US – though observers have noted that the two nations' historic anti-drugs co-operation has continued during even the most heated disputes.

The capture by US forces of Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro in January has left Petro one of the region's few remaining left-wing leaders not ideologically aligned with the Trump administration.

Trump has accused Petro of not doing enough to prevent cocaine from his country winding up on US streets.

At one point, Trump even called him "a sick man who likes selling cocaine to the United States" and said "he could be next" for US military intervention.

Petro has argued his government has seized the largest amount of drugs in history. But on his watch cocaine production has also soared to record highs, according to the United Nations' World Drug Report 2025. Petro disputes the UN's method of counting.

The two presidents, however, appeared to have mended their relations at a White House meeting in February – after which Trump called his guest "terrific".