BOGOTA, June 13 -- President Gustavo Petro has told Donald Trump to keep out of Colombia's presidential election, after the US leader threw his complete and total endorsement behind the far-right front-runner two weeks before a runoff that will reshape the country's relationship with Washington.

The intervention came as Colombia prepares for a June 21 second round between Abelardo de la Espriella, a hardline conservative lawyer who led the first round with 43.7 percent, and Ivan Cepeda, a veteran leftist senator running on 40.9 percent to continue the project of the outgoing Petro government.

Trump made his preference unmistakable. In a social-media post he granted de la Espriella his complete and total endorsement, praised him as an in...