# Colombia's Armed Conflict
> Six decades of guerrilla war, dissident FARC factions, and ELN insurgency make Colombia's security crisis the Western Hemisphere's longest active armed conflict.

**Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads:  · 4 takes · 4 lenses · 3 regions

## What it is

Colombia's armed conflict is a multi-actor insurgency running continuously since the early 1960s. The main parties are the Colombian state, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN, founded 1964), and the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), the dominant faction of FARC fighters who rejected the 2016 Havana peace accords. A third layer consists of the Gulf Clan (Clan del Golfo), Colombia's largest organized crime group, which controls drug-trafficking routes from the Pacific coast through the Darién Gap. The conflict is inseparable from cocaine: Colombia produces roughly 90% of the US cocaine supply, and territorial control over coca-growing departments, Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo, and Caquetá, is the core economic driver for all armed groups. As of early 2026, more than 25,000 fighters are active across these factions, a figure that has risen roughly 85% since 2017.

## History

The FARC and ELN formed in 1964-65 as Marxist peasant insurgencies inspired by the Cuban revolution. Both evolved over decades into organizations funded primarily by drug trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion. A Colombian government military offensive in the 2000s, backed by roughly US$10 billion in US military aid under Plan Colombia, substantially weakened the FARC and pushed its leadership into remote jungle areas. In 2016, the FARC signed a comprehensive peace agreement with President Juan Manuel Santos in Havana, covering rural reform, political participation, illicit crops, victim reparations, and transitional justice. Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize. Implementation stalled almost immediately: former fighters were killed at high rates and state promises on rural investment went unfulfilled. By 2019, a dissident faction under alias "Iván Márquez" re-armed as Second Marquetalia. The EMC, led by alias Iván Mordisco, became the dominant dissident force and by early 2026 numbered an estimated 3,200 to 4,000 fighters.

## Current state

President Gustavo Petro took office in August 2022 on a "Paz Total" (Total Peace) platform, pursuing simultaneous ceasefires and negotiations with all armed groups. By August 2023 the approach produced a twelve-month ELN ceasefire, the longest that group had ever agreed to. Talks collapsed in January 2025 after ELN fighters clashed with an EMC faction in the Catatumbo region near the Venezuelan border, killing more than 100 civilians and displacing roughly 55,000 people in the [Catatumbo offensive](/ja/n/colombia-total-peace-collapse-catatumbo). Petro suspended ELN negotiations. Armed groups then used the ceasefire period to consolidate territory: by early 2026, the Gulf Clan operated in 392 Colombian municipalities, a 55% increase since 2022. A wave of bombings in April 2026, attributed to the EMC, killed about 20 civilians on a Cauca highway during the [pre-election offensive](/ja/n/colombia-cauca-pacific-bombing-wave). Colombia's May 2026 presidential election produced a right-wing winner, [Abelardo de la Espriella](/ja/n/colombia-de-la-espriella), who takes office in August 2026.

## Relationships

Colombia's conflict ties directly to Venezuela, where ELN rear bases in Apure and Zulia states are tolerated by the Maduro government, giving the insurgency a cross-border sanctuary that complicates any Colombian military campaign. The Gulf Clan's control of the Darién Gap links Colombia's armed economy to US migration politics and to North American drug markets. The United States has been Colombia's principal security partner since Plan Colombia (2000), providing surveillance, training, and equipment. The 2016 Havana accord drew international guarantors, including Cuba, Norway, and the UN Verification Mission, which continues to monitor implementation and document killings of demobilized fighters.

## What to watch

- Whether de la Espriella's government restores aerial coca eradication, suspended by Petro, and how the EMC and ELN respond to a harder military posture.
- Civilian displacement and massacre figures in Cauca, Nariño, and Catatumbo as armed group territorial contests continue.
- The fate of the JEP (Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace) and the UN Verification Mission, both of which de la Espriella has criticized.
- ELN rear-base access in Venezuela: any shift in Maduro's posture would reshape the insurgency's logistics and negotiating leverage considerably.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### official record
- **UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR)** (Global, en) — UN report documenting 972 killings of human rights defenders between 2016 and 2025, 252 people killed in 72 massacres in 2024, and 216 child recruitments by armed groups.
  Source: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/colombia-un-report-urges-state-protect-civilians-and-their-rights-amid

### conflict data
- **ACLED** (Global, en) — Data-driven finding that violence under Petro fell 11% in lethality while armed groups expanded into 580 municipalities and total combatant numbers rose roughly 85% since 2017.
  Source: https://acleddata.com/report/total-peace-paradox-colombia-petros-policy-reduced-violence-armed-groups-grew-stronger

### human rights
- **Human Rights Watch** (United States, en) — Documents Gulf Clan presence in 392 municipalities, ELN in 232, FARC dissidents in 299; more than 121,000 people forcibly displaced in the first half of 2024 alone.
  Source: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/colombia

### conflict analysis
- **International Crisis Group** (Belgium, en) — Assessment that Petro's national Paz Total has fragmented after the Catatumbo breakdown, arguing the only realistic remaining path runs through local rather than comprehensive peace agreements.
  Source: https://www.crisisgroup.org/cmt/latin-america-caribbean/andes/colombia/colombia-total-peace-local-peace

## Across the graph
- Related: [[colombia-cauca-pacific-bombing-wave]], [[colombia-total-peace-collapse-catatumbo]], [[colombia-de-la-espriella]], [[colombia-runoff-cepeda-legal-challenge]]
- Entities: Colombia Conflict, Colombia, Eln, Farc Dissidents, Person:gustavo Petro

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ja/n/colombia-conflict-dossier