What's behind Colombia's Runoff Election Race?

With the first round of Colombia’s presidential election completed, voters now have a clear choice between two significantly different candidates ahead of the runoff scheduled for June 15.

In president Juan Manuel Santos, the incumbent who is running for a second four-year term, Colombians have a known quantity whose stated priority is to end a brutal 50-year old insurgency that has been largely responsible for the country's lingering insecurity. His opponent, Oscar Iván Zuluaga, is a former finance minister and the handpicked heir of popular ex-President Álvaro Uribe. If elected to office, Zuluaga is widely expected to bring back Uribe’s hardline security policies as well as new conditions for the continuation of the current peace negotiations with the rebels.

While there was little doubt that Santos and Zuluaga would emerge as the winners among the five candidates competing in the first round of the presidential poll, the election shocker was the challenger’s four- point lead over the president in the final tally....

Read the full article in U.S. News & World Report's online opinion section.