Colombia’s new government has pulled the plug on “total peace,” the signature security strategy of former President Gustavo Petro that sought negotiated settlements with guerrilla groups and criminal gangs. President Abelardo De La Espriella announced on September 11 that his administration had signed off on resolutions shutting down every remaining negotiation table and legal-dialogue space left over from the previous government.
“The false peace is over,” De La Espriella wrote on X, noting that his government fulfilled its promise within its first month in office. The closures affect talks with several FARC dissident factions, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and urban criminal structures operating in Medellín, the Aburrá Valley, Quibdó and Buenaventura. A temporary relocation zone for former combatants in Valle del Guamuez, near the border with Ecuador, has also been dismantled.
The presidency said it would no longer tolerate institutional spaces being used by armed groups to delay prosecution or continue criminal activity. Those genuinely willing to disarm must submit to the justice system, officials said, while those who keep attacking civilians will face the full force of the law.
According to reporting by El Tiempo, Petro’s peace initiatives cost roughly 125 billion Colombian pesos (about $31 million) without producing a single finalized accord. Analysts, including the Fundación Ideas para la Paz, have blamed the failure on weak institutional design rather than political timing alone.
Read the full story at El Tiempo.
Source: 'Dimos por terminados todos los procesos de diálogo': presidente De La Espriella confirma el fin de la 'paz total' (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Pedro Ribeiro Simões from Lisboa, Portugal.