COLOMBIA: Blinken To Hold Talks With Pres Duque Ahead Of Election Runoff

15:00 ET 20:00 BST: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will deliver joint remarks with Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez at the White House to celebrate 200 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Colombia.

• The US State Department says the leaders will celebrate “joint efforts to achieve lasting peace, inclusive growth, and stronger democracies [and reflecting on] 200 years of diplomatic partnership.”
• Colombians head to the ballot box for the second-round runoff presidential election on Sunday where two anti-establishment candidates, leftist Gustavo Petro and populist Rodolfo Hernández Suárez are facing off in a contest which is currently too close to call.
• Whichever candidate wins, there is expected to be a shakeup of the bilateral relationship with the US, and Washington is expected to lose influence in the region.
• LA Times: "The United States is about to lose its best friend in Latin America."
• Cynthia Arnson of the Wilson Center: “This is a watershed moment in Colombian history — and potentially a watershed moment in U.S.-Colombian relations.”
• Blinken will be hoping to use the White House platform to remind the incoming Colombian president of the significance of the US relationship.
• If Petro wins on Sunday, Washington will push hard to prevent Bogota from coalescing into a leftist bloc with other left leaning Latin American states fearing that the region could move closer to China.
• Duque has regularly played up his close relationship with Washington. He received a standing ovation at last week's Summit of the Americas for accepting a US plan to provide residency to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans refugees.