Colombia: Grave Crisis, Mild Proposals

This article was originally published on the author's Substack.

The government of the Narcos’ lawyer has been in power for only a short while and it has already shown its lack of administrative ability and at the same time its ironclad alliance with Narcos, right-wing paramilitaries and of course, Israel. What is coming down the road will be worse than any previous government. However, the response from the Left in Congress has been mild and as has happened in the past the history of the country is being rewritten to accommodate the truth to their political proposals.

They said there was electoral fraud, however, they continue as if it was a “normal” government. The so-called civil disobedience amounts to nothing. If there was fraud, then a complete break with the fraudsters is called for. Given the nature of the extreme right-wing government, even in the case of a legitimate victory it could not be treated as a “normal” government. But supposedly in the name of avoiding a bloodbath they accepted that the chainsaw lawyer govern the country and they stick to the rules of the game as if everything was normal. That could be seen in the votes in the new Congress. In order to prevent a candidate of the Narcos becoming president of the Senate they formed an alliance with the Democratic Centre, another narco-paramilitary party. It is not exactly the civil disobedience that they preached. They chose between the new well oiled, sharp chainsaw of the government and that of the Uribistas which only needs a few drops of oil, if even that. The Historic Pact’ senators should be asked how many deaths did the Uribistas cause? How many disappeared, exiles, raped women, stolen lands? It is also worth remembering that De la Espriella was the lawyer for the paramilitaries, the Narcos and the Uribista landlords. They cannot be separated. They did the same thing with the choice for Comptroller General. Following that, the Senate allowed Petro to be absent from the country, as all ex-presidents require the permission of the Senate to leave the country in the first year. It is not known whether it was in exchange for the HP votes or just that friends help each other out. If it is not corruption in the legal sense, it is certainly in any moral sense.

On social media news regarding concerns about the possible return of the ESMAD (Specialised Riot Squad) can be seen. But it is fake news. The ESMAD never went away. Petro did not abolish the ESMAD. It was one of the first betrayals of his campaign. He limited himself to changing the name to UNDMO (Unit for Dialogue and Upholding Order) and asking them to behave a little better and show better manners during his presidency. And in fact there was a significant reduction in violent actions when comparing the Duque and Petro governments. According to the NGO, Temblores, there was an almost 70% reduction in cases of police violence between one government and the other.^[1] It should be remembered that Duque faced the pandemia and the Social Revolt, so of course there was reduction in the number of cases of police violence in the Petro government. But the figures show that not only does social protest play a role in the number of cases but so too does the political management that is given at each point.

According to the Adhoc Committee for Clarification the violence carried out during the Social Revolt was systematic and moreover,

Lethal force was not used as a proportional response to a threat, but rather as a means of dissuasion and punishment, of a nature to explicitly make an example through the disproportional use of weapons and repressive tactics designed to fight organised armed groups.^[2]

That being the case, the ESMAD should have been disbanded and not just have undergone a name change. Of course, the Narcos’ lawyer could have reestablished the ESMAD, but that is more complicated than changing the name and the entity now enjoys the legitimacy conferred on it by the Petro government.

Coming down the road is a wave of state and paramilitary violence (which is the same thing despite the discourses of various NGO.). The threats, murders, displacements, exiles and of course judicial repression through frame ups will increase. But before we think of the desolate future that awaits us on this point, we should be clear about what these last four years have been like. It is important, as significant figures in the Historic Pact, such as Iván Cepeda lied about the reality of violence in the country when Duque took over the presidency. At that time, Cepeda said that Duque had inherited a country without massacres when that was not the case. It is true that they rose dramatically after him taking power, but there had always been massacres because the paramilitary-state structure of violence had never been disbanded by the Santos governments.^[3]

Without a doubt there will be an increase in the number of social leaders in Colombia murdered, of demobilised FARC members, forced disappearances, torture, threats and forced displacements. But neither is it the case that under the Petro government there was none of that. His policy of Total Peace failed on day one, poorly thought out, badly implemented, directionless and subject to the almost Trump like whims and caprices of the president, who just like Trump communicated his changes via Twitter. So the violence never went away.

The NGO Indepaz published its balance sheet on the protection of the civilian population under the Santos, Duque and Petro governments. The figures for the Santos government only include those murders in the two years following the signing of the agreement with the FARC, so in this case they are just partial. Even so, 330 were murdered (Santos), 852 (Duque) and 705 (Petro). The decrease under Petro is not as significant as would have been hoped for and the NGO states:

The persistence of these homicides shows that whilst progress can be seen regarding the previous period, the preventative and protective measures have yet to structurally transform the conditions for violence [emphasis is mine] that affect the organisations and communities in the territories impacted by the armed conflict.^[4]

It is important to remember those figures when they increase further still under the Narcos’ lawyer. Petro has not left a country in peace and the structural conditions are still intact. So it will come as no surprise that the violence continues or that it increases.

A similar situation can be seen with demobilised guerrillas. There were 78 murdered (Santos), 277 (Duque) and 167 (Petro), though in Petro’s case those figures included the paramilitary drug trafficking group known as Front 33, whose members are “demobilised” FARC members. This violence will also continue. In both cases it is important to be clear about who is responsible. Those who make up the Historic Pact today, have in various instances in the past, particularly under the Santos government tried to absolve the state and the right-wing paramilitaries of responsibility. Following the peace deal they tried to blame the ELN for all the murders of social leaders, something which is totally harebrained and tried to blame the ELN for murdering all the ex-FARC even though the first murders took place in the Department of Caquetá where the ELN had never had a presence. They did this as a favour to the Colombian bourgeoisie in an attempt to clean up the image of Nobel Laureate, Santos. During Santos first government they did not hesitate in blaming the state, but following the agreement with the FARC it was no longer convenient.

Under Petro, forced displacement also increased. So much so that Petro far exceeds the previous governments. According to Indepaz’s report there were 23,585 displaced (Santos), 106,211 (Duque) and 231,776 (Petro). In fact, in just the year 2025, 107,079 people were displaced.^[5]

USA

One of the paramilitary murderers and Narcos’ lawyer’s first measures was to authorise the participation of the US military in the country. Iván Cepeda denounced it, arguing that it was the beginning of the end of national sovereignty and that the US military would not respect Colombian legislation. It is unconstitutional as only the Congress can authorise that. But there are at least seven US military bases in Colombia and Petro did not shut down a single one, but rather promised to build a Yankee base on the Gorgona Island, a nature reserve which was awarded UNESCO world heritage status in 1984. Petro not only did not reverse this project, which he inherited from previous governments, but rather on various occasions he has tried to deceive people about the true nature of the installations alleging that it was not a military base. But it is, or rather it will be when its construction is finished.^[6] Furthermore, no sooner had his government began he proposed handing over an area of the Amazon to the USA to supposedly “protect” it. In a meeting with General Laura J. Richardson he proposed setting up a military force to protect the Amazon.^[7] The same arguments proffered by Cepeda in relation to the Narcos’ lawyer’s proposals apply in this case and Petro’s proposal was as unconstitutional as the proposal from De la Espriella.

The Earthquake

If there is anything that shows the Colombian Right’s contempt for human life is their reaction to the earthquake. According to the Narcos’ lawyer, the Christian god send the earthquake to put him to the test. It is a level of narcissism and contempt for life that is coherent with his work in favour of Narcos and those who dismembered peasants with a chainsaw. To him and them, human life is worthless.

In times of emergency, criteria for rescuing and protecting life should take precedent and should be the central axis of state policy. But De la Espriella had other priorities and had time to recognise the Golan Heights as a part of Israel and furthermore invited a Zionist delegation to the country and agreed to US interventions in the country as they saw fit. Moreover, he first rejected and the placed obstacles in the path of teams coming from other countries. He lied and said that Colombia had all the rescue teams it needed, whilst the people of Buenaventura were crying out for rescuers to be sent to the city, faced with a total lack of them in the city. The Topos Aztecas (Aztec Moles) that have helped 80 countries arrived from Venezuela without the government’s permission. Meanwhile the Narcos’ lawyer laughed, blew kisses, danced and organised fake videos in which people in those places with an insufficient number of rescuers praised him. And to make matters worse he invited Israeli assassins to the country to “rescue” the people and they ended up attacking them instead, which is their custom as the Zionist know how to kill but rescue. They spent their time taking photos of themselves in a simulacrum of a rescue, whilst in other neighbourhoods, tanks from the state’s own forces arrived.

The people organised themselves and in addition to donations organised by the state and bodies such as the Red Cross, the communities themselves organised their own collection centres. The youths from the Front Line defied the state. Following a declaration of a curfew in Cali they went out in any case and took part in the rescue work. In that same city the mayor arrived in an area affected by the quake and he was welcomed with bricks, forcing him to withdraw. There is no room for the weak willed in questions of life and death, you have to face the state and the Narcos at all times and not obey the rules of the game that they like so much in Congress.

It has to be made clear to the people that there are no fundamental differences between today’s Narcos and those of yesteryear, the chainsaws of one group are as vile as those of the other. The HP believes there is some way of taking advantage of minor disputes between them for the booty. No! As the youths of the Front Line have shown, they only listen when you stand up to them, not when you seek partial accords to hand out jobs. The struggle in the next four years is of life and death and not about which child or which member of M-19 or other sectors in the HP gets a post. There is no room for social climbers and the half-hearted.

^[1] RCTV (30/05/2026) Violencia policial cayó cerca del 70% durante gobierno del presidente Petro, según informe de Temblores ONG. https://www.rtvcnoticias.com/justicia/paz-y-derechos-humanos/violencia-policial-informe-caida-uso-fuerza-petro

^[2] Comité de Esclarecimiento Adhoc (2006) Informe Final: Que protestar no (nos) cueste la vida ni la dignidad. p.235 https://staging.colombiaplural.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/0.-Texto_Final-comprimido.pdf?_gl=1*1pit4ox*_ga*MTUxNTc2OTk3MC4xNzg3NTE1NzQ1*_ga_ZNG0REV7Q9*czE3ODc1MTU3NDUkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODc1MTU3NDUkajYwJGwwJGgw

^[3] Ó Loingsigh, G. (28/08/2020) Las masacres que nunca fueron. https://rebelion.org/las-masacres-que-nunca-fueron/

^[4] Indepaz (2026) Balance de Protección a la Población Civil. p.6 https://indepaz.org.co/balance-de-proteccion-a-la-poblacion-civil-durante-el-gobierno-de-gustavo-petro-2022-2026/

^[5] Ibíd., pp 14 y 15

^[6] González Posso, D. (04/12/2025) En qué va el proyecto militar en Gorgona?. Indepaz. https://indepaz.org.co/en-que-va-el-proyecto-militar-en-gorgona/

^[7] El País (07/09/2022) Presidente Petro le propuso a EE.UU. crear una fuerza militar que proteja el Amazonas. Natalia Londoño. https://www.elpais.com.co/politica/presidente-petro-le-propuso-a-ee-uu-crear-una-fuerza-militar-que-proteja-el-amazonas.html