Colombia after the peace agreement

Colombia fought the FARC guerrillas for fifty-two years and made peace with them in 2016. Thirteen thousand fighters laid down their arms. The land they left was not taken over by the state but by others: FARC factions that refused the deal, the older ELN guerrillas, and drug-trafficking armies descended from the paramilitaries. Cocaine output is the highest ever measured. The first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, tried to negotiate with all of them at once and failed. In June 2026 Colombians elected Abelardo de la Espriella, a lawyer from outside politics who promised force instead, with the United States at his side.

Where it stands · September 2026

On 1 September the government bombed a camp of FARC dissidents, killing twenty. On 5 September guerrillas attacked a military base, killing two soldiers, and the president survived what the government called an assassination attempt by the ELN. On 8 September the government lifted its suspension on legal gun permits. On 26 September it extradited a rebel leader to the United States, aligning its security policy with Washington. On 28 September the United States cancelled visas for officials from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

What the dispute is about

Negotiate or fight. Every Colombian government since 1982 has done both. The 2016 agreement ended the largest insurgency. Petro's wider attempt produced ceasefires that the armed groups used to expand, by the army's and the ombudsman's accounts.

The agreement itself. It promised land reform, rural roads, crop substitution for coca farmers and a special court. Less than half has been carried out. More than four hundred former fighters who signed it have been killed.

The United States. Washington paid for much of Colombia's war for twenty years, fell out with Petro, put him under sanctions, and has embraced his successor, who has invited its forces in.

How each side explains it

The new government's account

Total peace was total surrender. Armed groups doubled their numbers and their territory under ceasefires, murdered a presidential candidate and bombed cities, while coca spread without limit. Colombians voted by a clear majority for order. Narco-terrorists will be bombed, captured and extradited, with every help the United States will give. Negotiation is open only to those who disarm first. The 2016 agreement, rejected by voters at the time, gave killers seats in congress and will not be a model for anything.

The account of the left and of the peace agreement's defenders

The 2016 agreement ended a war that had killed 260,000 people, and it is failing because successive governments would not pay for the rural reform at its heart. Colombia tried pure force from 2002 to 2010, and its army murdered thousands of civilians to inflate its body counts. Bombing camps full of forcibly recruited teenagers is not security. Inviting American troops and extraditing negotiators forecloses any settlement and hands sovereignty to a government in Washington that sanctioned Colombia's president for disagreeing with it.

In our coverage

Colombia's negotiated demobilisation and democratic transition are working →17 headlines
Covered by:Reuters · Associated Press · El Mundo · La Nación · El Universal · Japan Times

What each account leaves out

The new government's leaves out that force alone was tried for decades before 2016 and left the guerrillas in the field; that its first air raids on the ELN hit civilians, by local reports; that the president made his name defending men accused of paramilitary ties and of laundering; and that allowing foreign military operations without asking the high court's opinion is contested by that court.

The left's leaves out that under Petro the armed groups grew by about half, by the state's own figures, and that the ceasefires bound the army more than its opponents; that his government was damaged by corruption cases of its own; and that his claim of electoral fraud has been accepted by no electoral authority or court.

The armed groups' leaves out that they live on cocaine, illegal gold and extortion of the same rural poor; that they recruit children; that the ELN's attack on Catatumbo in 2025 drove fifty thousand peasants from their homes; and that they have broken every ceasefire they signed.

The ledger

The Colombian state

Wanted: under Petro a negotiated end to all the armed groups, under his successor their defeat.
Gained: the FARC's demobilisation in 2016, which has held for most who signed.
Paid: a countryside still ruled by armed men, and record cocaine.

The armed groups

Wanted: by their own account social change, by the state's account the drug routes.
Gained: territory and recruits during the talks.
Paid: those talks, now closed, and extradition.

The United States

Wanted: less cocaine and a loyal partner.

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

total peace / surrender
narco-terrorists / insurgents / dissidents
false positives
signatories of the peace
fumigation
extradition
iron fist

Events per week

Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.

Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.

Week of Sep 28, 2026(9)

Bolivia Arrests Attorney General on Drug and Money Laundering Charges

7 sourcesOct 1, 2026

OAS demands elections and release of political prisoners in Nicaragua

1 sourcesOct 2, 2026

Wife, daughter of drug lord Fito captured in Colombia

2 sourcesSep 28, 2026

US cancels visas for officials from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

1 sourcesSep 28, 2026

OAS approves resolution demanding elections in Nicaragua

1 sourcesOct 2, 2026

Bolivia's attorney general, sanctioned by the US, is arrested

1 sourcesOct 1, 2026

Bolivia's parliament to review US accusations against officials

1 sourcesSep 29, 2026

Six kilos of cocaine seized at Barajas airport

1 sourcesSep 28, 2026

Undocumented Venezuelans in Colombia face uncertainty amid threats

1 sourcesSep 28, 2026

Colombia after the peace agreement

What the dispute is about

How each side explains it

The new government's account

The account of the left and of the peace agreement's defenders

What each account leaves out

The ledger

The Colombian state

The armed groups

The United States

Words in dispute

Events per week

The account of the ELN and the FARC dissidents

Rural Colombians

What changed the course