Colombia

[…] He said the coming year “undoubtedly provides a window to advance peace as a strategic national objective, and for Colombia and its partners to engage constructively through dialogue to address shared challenges,” particularly in the border area with Venezuela “where cooperation on all sides is essential.” 

In response to an invitation by the Colombian authorities, an EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) will be deployed to observe the 2026 legislative and presidential elections in Colombia.

Colombian guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) is willing to resume peace negotiations with the current government or with whatever new government is elected next year if commitments previously agreed upon at stymied peace talks are honored, the group's top commander told Reuters.

At least 19 people have been killed in an air strike on a suspected rebel camp in Colombian province of Guaviare, according to the country's military. The attack targeted a dissident faction of the Farc rebel group, which engages in drug trafficking. … The air strike comes after the Trump administration accused Petro of allowing the drugs trade to expand, which the Colombian president has denied.

The Security Council decided today to extend the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia for one year, even as most Council members decried the reduction of its scope. … The renewed mandate will focus on verifying three fundamental aspects of the Peace Agreement: the political, economic, and social reintegration of former members of the FARC-EP; security guarantees for former combatants, their families, leaders, and communities; and the comprehensive rural reform. … At the same time, the resolution establishes that transitional justice and the ethnic chapter will no longer be subject to verification by the Mission. 

An appeals court has overturned the conviction of the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe for bribery and witness tampering in a historic case that gripped the South American country and tarnished the conservative strongman’s legacy.

The National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army (CNEB), one of five dissident groups of Colombia's former FARC guerrilla movement, handed over its first batch of armaments as a sign of goodwill in talks with the Colombian government, both sides said on Wednesday.

Consolidating peace in Colombia after decades of conflict is a complex work in progress, the Security Council heard today from the new head of the United Nations Verification Mission in that country.

The UN has welcomed Colombia’s first convictions under its transitional justice tribunal, calling sentences handed down to former rebel commanders “a crucial milestone on the path to accountability,” in the words of human rights chief Volker Türk. … The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), established under the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Government and FARC rebels, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, issued the sentences based on restorative justice on Tuesday.

Colombia is in the midst of a dramatic surge in violence from armed conflict. Already this year, hundreds of people have been killed, tens of thousands trapped in their homes by fighting, and nearly 122,000 forcibly displaced. How did we get here?