After polls closed in Colombia’s presidential runoff on Sunday afternoon, leftist candidate Iván Cepeda convened his most die-hard supporters for his campaign’s closing ceremony at a packed theater in Bogotá’s Chapinero neighborhood. They had hoped to be celebrating a clear left-wing victory that night. However, as the pre-count bulletins trickled in, it became clear that the election was very close. With 99 percent of votes counted, Cepeda trailed his far-right opponent Abelardo de la Espriella by less than 1 percent — not even 250,000 votes out of more than twenty-five million cast.

When the pre-count results were clear, Cepeda quickly took to the stage to calm anxieties with a speech that emphasized the need to count every vote at thirty-three thousand polling stations before conceding the election. He also stressed the need for a government that looks to unify the nation, and the fact that his campaign brought in over a million new voters. He closed by quoting the murdered Chilean President Salvador Allende: “History is ours, and it is made by the people.” After the speech, the crowd erupted in applause and chants of “Cepeda Presidente.”

A few hours later, Cepeda’s rival de la Espriella, donning the Colombia soccer jersey that his campaign appropriated as a symbol, took to the stage in the coastal city of Barranquilla to give a speech that can only be described as pure spectacle. While speaking from a bulletproof box, surrounded by a giant projection of himself giving a military salute, de la Espriella spoke of the need to reconcile differences and guarantee the rights of the opposition while issuing subtle threats to those who planned to peacefully protest against his government.