Increasing attacks shake Colombia, testing 'total peace'

 Fresh incidents, including a bombing and political assassination, have revived fears of the nation's violent recent past, just as the government’s flagship peace plan faces mounting skepticism.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (CN) — An echo from the past roared across Colombia on a single late August day, when a truck bomb near a military base in Cali and a drone‑downed police helicopter in Antioquia brought back buried fears of a decadeslong conflict.

“Today has been a day of death,” said President Gustavo Petro after the twin Aug. 21 events, which resulted in at least 18 deaths in Cali, the site of the military base, and Antioquia, where the helicopter was downed.

Hospitalized presidential hopeful Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay had died 10 days before — two months after he was shot at a June 7 political rally by a teenager, presumably working for a criminal organization. It was the deadliest political attack since the Pablo Escobar era.

For many Colombians, the sparks of violence felt like confirmation of the fragility of the “total peace” proposal by the government, the first left-leaning leadership in the nation’s modern history.

In January, fighting in Catatumbo between the National Liberation Army, known by its Spanish initials ELN, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, caused dozens of deaths and displaced over 50,000 people, triggering one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades.

Although the events hold different roots, they paint a picture of despair for those who spent most of their lives hoping for real peace.

“We signed peace agreements, but some refused to join,” said Octavio Rego, 66, a pensioner from Bogotá who drives a taxi to make ends meet, on the day after the attacks. He believes the forces that cast his generation into fear remain active today.

“Nothing has changed,” Rego said.

Colombia, a nation of over 52 million, endured more than 60 years of internal war despite multiple peace efforts. Though experts say the 2016 peace agreement signed with FARC, the country’s biggest armed force, was unprecedented, it left territorial and social gaps that paved the way for smaller, fragmented groups across the territory.

That’s what Petro’s strategy pledged to overcome, via broad conversations with all groups, simultaneously, to seal agreements for “total peace.”

Lately, the markers of civil unrest have intensified: militant clashes, attacks on military and police, political violence, and soaring levels of forced displacement — phenomena the country has witnessed before, but not at these elevated rates in recent memory.

According to Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the Andes region for Crisis Group, these violent scenes are different because of the armed groups themselves.

“The armed organizations from the past were hierarchical, rooted in Marxist ideas,” she said. “Now, instead of heading towards socialism, they’re only seeking economic and territorial control.”

In recent years, governments took different strategies to curb the violence that left nearly 10 million registered victims across the country. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who governed from 2002 to 2010, adopted a hardline security policy that significantly increased military operations in guerrilla-controlled regions. While the strategy weakened insurgents, it led to an increase in human rights violations, resulting in the forced displacement of more than 2.4 million people, according to human rights monitors.

His successor, Juan Manuel Santos, charted a markedly different course. Combining military pressure with political negotiation, he spearheaded a historic peace deal with FARC in 2016. By the following year, the United Nations had verified the disarmament of approximately 7,000 combatants, with a total of over 13,000 people demobilized.

That momentum slowed under President Iván Duque, who took office in 2018. Aligning with Uribe’s tough stance, Duque was openly skeptical of the peace accord and moved to scale it back. His administration reduced support for transitional justice institutions and halted negotiations with other armed groups, contributing to a resurgence in violence across some rural areas.

As Colombia’s first leftist president, a former M-19 guerilla member himself, Petro launched his flagship security and peace initiative in late 2022 with congressional approval. The plan quickly became the political centerpiece of his administration.

“But there wasn’t a thorough coordination,” said Laura Bonilla, vice president of Pares, an organization working toward peace and reconciliation. “And that fractured the trust in the program.”

Bonilla said the government sought to change course but without a clear path toward peace. Based on fragile spoken agreements, the efforts dissipated and eventually led to the return of high rates of violence.

“People have reasons to be fearful,” she adds. “For the first time since 2016, armed forces are being attacked — something only FARC guerrillas used to do.” She also notes that the growing alliance between narcotrafficking networks and guerrilla groups, which accelerated during and after the pandemic, only deepens the stakes.

“It increased the need of the groups to control the territories,” she added.

Framing his plan as a necessary evolution from past peace efforts, Petro brought dialogue beyond traditional guerrilla groups to include criminal networks and urban gangs, offering reduced sentences and reintegration programs in exchange for disarmament, cooperation and reparations.

However, its rollout has faced major hurdles, including fragmented negotiations, continued violence in rural regions and growing skepticism over the ability to deliver on promises of peace. As critics question the plan’s feasibility, it now serves as both a test of Petro’s political credibility and a barometer for the country’s appetite for comprehensive conflict resolution.

Watchdog organizations have recently warned that the ongoing conditions could make 2025 a critical year for Colombia. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported in July that mass displacement grew by 117% compared to the previous year.

And although today’s numbers are considerably lower than the early 2000s, the most violent years of the armed conflict, political initiatives to curb armed groups’ rapid growth are proving meager.

On a Sunday morning after the attacks, as families walked by and tourists loafed around, culture and art mixed with Colombia’s still very-present past.

Francia Elena Yolanda — a forcibly displaced victim from Cauca — sold handmade soaps at a small table in a public fair. “Volatile,” she called the peace agreements, “a smokescreen.” She studied sociology in Bogotá after fleeing her home and returned to tell her story: Her community still lives under displacement and fear.

“It’s like taking aspirin when you have a headache,” she said. “It soothes the pain for a moment. Then it comes back.”

Source https://www.courthousenews.com/increasing-attacks-shake-colombia-testing-total-peace/