Colombia Ends Nine Peace Talks With Armed Groups

COLOMBIA · SECURITY

Colombia spent four years talking to everyone with a gun. On Monday it stopped talking to nine of them.

Colombia’s government terminated nine negotiating tables with armed groups on 14 September, retroactive to 7 August. Government spokesman Miller Soto gave the groups a choice between submitting to the law and confronting the security forces.

What Was Announced

Miller Soto, speaking for the government, set out the terms on 14 September.

The phrase used was sometimiento a la ley o enfrentamiento con las autoridades. It leaves no third option on the table.

Nine negotiating processes were declared terminated. The terminations apply retroactively from 7 August.

The announcement came from the spokesman rather than from President Gustavo Petro, whose personal project Paz Total has been since 2022.

Why Paz Total Was Different

Colombia’s 2016 agreement with the FARC was a single negotiation with a single counterparty, and it took four years.

Paz Total attempted the opposite. It opened parallel processes with every armed group willing to sit down, including criminal organisations with no political programme.

The theory was that negotiating with all of them at once would stop replacement. Groups that signed would not simply be supplanted by groups that did not.

The practical difficulty was that some counterparties had no coherent leadership to negotiate with, and several used ceasefires to expand territory.

The ELN Question

The Ejército de Liberación Nacional is the largest guerrilla group still operating in Colombia and the oldest in Latin America.

Talks with the ELN broke down in January 2025 after attacks in Catatumbo displaced tens of thousands of people.

The 14 September announcement does not name the ELN among the nine terminated tables. The government has not clarified.

That ambiguity may be deliberate. Formally ending the ELN process would close an option the government has repeatedly reopened.

What Retroactive to 7 August Means

Dating the terminations to 7 August rather than 14 September has legal consequences.

Ceasefire protections and the suspension of arrest warrants that accompany a formal negotiation lapse from the earlier date.

Operations conducted between 7 August and 14 September fall under the new position. The old framework no longer covers them.

It also suggests the decision was taken some weeks before it was announced.

Where This Lands on the Map

The groups affected operate principally in Catatumbo, on the Venezuelan border. Others are in Cauca and Nariño in the south-west, and along the Pacific coast.

These are the same regions that produce most of Colombia’s coca and handle most of its cocaine exports.

Military operations in Cauca and Catatumbo have continued throughout the negotiation period. What changes is the legal framing rather than the tempo.

Tourist regions including Cartagena, Medellín, the coffee axis and Bogotá are not affected.

What It Means for People Living in Colombia

For residents of the major cities, the announcement changes nothing about daily life.

For anyone travelling overland in Cauca, Nariño, Arauca or Norte de Santander, the calculation is different. Roadblocks and armed checkpoints are more likely when ceasefires lapse.

The United States travel advisory for Colombia already lists those departments at its highest level, with the rest of the country lower.

Colombian government advice for internal travel is published by the Ministerio de Defensa and is updated more often than the foreign advisories.

The Politics of Ending It

Paz Total was the defining policy of the Petro administration and its results have been argued over since the first year.

Abandoning it in September 2026 places the decision inside the run-up to the 2027 presidential election.

Opposition candidates have campaigned on security and on the failure of the negotiations. The government has now conceded part of that argument.

Delivering it through a spokesman rather than the president is a way of making the concession without the president making it.

What to Watch

Whether the ELN is formally named in the coming days.

Whether operations in Catatumbo and Cauca intensify now that the legal framework has changed.

Whether any of the nine groups accept sometimiento, the judicial submission route that offers reduced sentences in exchange for surrender.

And whether the president endorses the announcement in his own words, which he had not done by Tuesday.

More: Colombia news and analysis, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Colombia announce?

It terminated nine negotiating tables with armed groups on 14 September. The groups were told to submit to the law or face the security forces.

Who made the announcement?

Government spokesman Miller Soto, not President Gustavo Petro.

Is the ELN included?

Unclear. The announcement did not obviously cover the ELN, and the government has not clarified.

What does retroactive to 7 August mean?

Ceasefire protections and suspended arrest warrants lapse from that date, covering operations conducted since.

Which regions are affected?

Mainly Catatumbo, Cauca, Nariño and the Pacific coast. Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and the coffee region are not.

What is Paz Total?

A policy launched in 2022 of negotiating simultaneously with every armed group in Colombia, including criminal organisations.

Sources: Presidencia de la República de Colombia, Oficina del Alto Comisionado para la Paz, El Tiempo, Caracol Radio, US Department of State.