Aerial view of billboards inviting Colombians to vote for presidential canditate Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Salvadores de la Patria motion (R), and for Ivan Cepdepa, of the Pacto Historico Political Social gathering, within the upcoming presidential election in Cali, Colombia, on June 17, 2026.
Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP by way of Getty Photos
LA HORMIGA, Colombia – Within the jungles of southern Colombia, rebels turned in so many automated rifles, pistols and bandoliers of bullets that one of many tables holding them collapsed within the mud. It was a small glitch in a ceremony designed to point out that authorities’s quest to disarm drug-trafficking guerrillas is lastly paying off.
However relying on the result of in the present day’s presidential runoff election, this can be Colombia’s final farewell-to-arms ceremony for a while to come back.
Polls predict that Abelardo De La Espriella, a far-right legal protection lawyer and political newcomer will defeat Iván Cepeda, a left-wing senator from the ruling occasion and a protégé of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, in a contest reflecting a broader rightward shift in elements of Latin America.
De La Espriella, who has been endorsed by President Trump, is promising to launch a army offensive in opposition to the guerrillas the day after he takes workplace.
“I will give the order to bomb all of the camps holding narco-terrorists.” he mentioned in an interview final month on Colombian TV. He added that the army will shoot down plane and sink boats which are smuggling cocaine.
Rebels from the Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Commandos stand ready to disarm and hand over their weapons throughout a uncommon demobilization ceremony in southern Colombia.
John Otis for NPR
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John Otis for NPR
His hardline message is connecting. Within the Could 31 first-round election, De La Espriella completed first amongst 13 candidates, although he lacked sufficient votes for outright victory. That has arrange in the present day’s runoff in opposition to Cepeda, who has promised TO cut back violence by means of peace negotiations.
“Even in the worst of times, Colombia has chosen life, democracy, hope and peace as the path forward,” Cepeda mentioned at a current marketing campaign rally.
However for the previous 4 years, President Petro’s envoys have held simultaneous talks with practically a dozen insurgent factions as a part of his “Total Peace” plan – with most ending in frustration.
The 100 members of a gaggle known as the Border Commandos, who disarmed on the jungle ceremony on Thursday, have been the primary and solely batch of rebels to take action beneath the Petro authorities.
The Border Commandos, who management villages and smuggle cocaine alongside elements of Colombia’s frontier with Ecuador, quantity about 1,000 fighters, thus solely 10% of the group really turned in weapons.
“If some turn in their guns and others don’t, it doesn’t make much sense,” mentioned Antonio Paguey, a social employee from La Ruidoso, a village beneath the management of the Border Commandos, who attended the ceremony.
Many insurgent teams are offshoots of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which had been combating to overthrow the federal government because the Sixties and had been the nation’s largest guerrilla group. The FARC signed a peace treaty in 2016 and practically all of its 15,000 combatants have been demobilized.
Nonetheless, some remained within the jungle and recruited extra fighters to type a new technology of insurgent teams. As an alternative of combating authorities troops, these guerrillas are primarily concerned in cocaine smuggling, extortion, and unlawful goldmining and logging.
The Border Commandos have used authorities ceasefires throughout peace talks to increase their territorial management. Safety analysts say that beneath President Petro, insurgent teams have practically doubled in measurement to about 27,000 fighters.
“It’s undeniable that we have a worse security situation now than we had four years ago,” mentioned Kyle Johnson of the Bogotá based mostly Battle Responses Basis.
He additionally questions the influence of Thursday’s disarmament ceremony as a result of it took only a tiny fraction of Colombian rebels off the battlefield.
“It’s better than nothing. But at the end of the day, it’s not much more than nothing,” he mentioned.
Weapons turned in by the Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Commandos guerillas at a demobilization ceremony in southern Colombia.
John Otis for NPR
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John Otis for NPR
Nonetheless, the federal government made fairly a fuss over the occasion, prompting critics to accuse Petro of utilizing this demobilization to win factors for his favored candidate – Cepeda – simply days forward of the election.
Employees erected a stage in the midst of the rainforest. Almost a dozen audio system took the microphone to hail the settlement with the Border Commandos. The ceremony included Colombia’s nationwide anthem but in addition the insurgent hymn of the Border Commandos — the lyrics of which make no point out of the group’s crimes.
However their unlawful actions have been arduous to disregard. The ceremony happened close to the city of La Hormiga which is surrounded by huge fields of coca bushes, the uncooked materials for cocaine that the Border Commandos export. The group’s chief is Geovanni Andrés Ríos who was arrested final 12 months for drug smuggling.
In a weird scene on the ceremony, his troops stood at consideration as Ríos addressed them in a dwell video feed from a Bogotá jail. He then gave the order handy over their weapons to authorities inspectors.
Additionally they shed their camouflage uniforms and donned blue denims and t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase: “I comply with the peace process.” Then, they started transferring their meager belongings right into a housing advanced the place they’re to obtain job coaching and different help.
Although their numbers have been small, now ex-fighters, like Carlos Andrés Torres, described disarming as an enormous step ahead. After highschool, Torres says he was determined to seek out work to assist his household. Six years in the past, he joined the Border Commanders who pay fighters about $600 a month. However he by no means felt good as a gunman.
Now, he says: “I’m really happy to go back to normal life.
Armando Novoa, the government envoy in charge of peace talks with the Border Commandos, claims that this partial demobilization could help convince the rest of the organization to turn in its weapons. But he fears Colombia’s next government will focus on military strikes and forget about these rebels-turned-civilians.
“What do they need these younger folks to do?” he says. “To return to struggle? To return to drug trafficking?”
