Colombia kicked off its electoral year with the Senate and House elections last weekend, alongside consultas for presidential runs. Who’s come out ahead?

The Colombian elections of 2026 started last week, with the Senate and Cámara finalising their seats for the next parliament. The presidential elections will take place at the end of May, with a second round in June if necessary.

The presidential elections also had a hand in last week’s results, with consultas to decide on who would represent groups of candidates with similar politics. That saw Claudia López, Roy Barreras and Paloma Valencia take the honours in their respective consultas.

When all was said and done, the results showed that traditional parties and candidates had generally performed poorly, with new candidates doing well and a difference in the traditional balance of power.

So, a week on and with the dust having settled as final results come in from all over the country, who’s up and who’s down after the first Colombian elections of 2026?  

Winners

It was a good day for the government, with the Pacto Histórico gaining seats and a low turnout for the leftist consulta. The Centro Democrático, too, had a good afternoon. Paloma won her consulta handily and the party overall also gained seats in borth houses.

Pacto Historico

The governing party had a spectacular Sunday, simply said. They increased their presence in both chambers and became the largest single party to boot. The Senate remains without a clear majority, but they are in a very strong position indeed, even without the former FARC combatientes’ curules.

On top of that, other results largely went their way. The leftist consulta that Cepeda was blocked from running in was a washout as the Pacto told their supporters to stay away. Prominent critics of the party from other parties such as Robledo, Miranda, Betancourt and Juvinao all crashed out as well.

While an overall majority in either house is far from within their grasp, the Senate now leans slightly more left than right, with left and centre-left senators adding up to 53. On top of that, after an often rocky government, it’s clear that they haven’t lost their base, indeed even expanding.

Paloma Valencia

A fortnight ago, Paloma Valencia’s campaign seemed to be stuttering. She was polling in single figures for first round intentions for the presidency and making few public appearances other than the mass debates for the Gran Consulta por Colombia. There was even a worry that she might suffer an upset in that consulta.

Fast forward to today and it’s a very different picture indeed. The latest polling shows her rocketing in popularity, now standing at around 20%. That’s because she picked up over three million votes in that consulta.

Then she picked the runner up in that race as her VP ticket, a smart move on her side to try and attract voters more in the centre as well as boost her in the capital. It’s not a landslide move, but it’s canny and the presidential race will likely come down to small margins. 

Juan Daniel Oviedo

Technically a loser, in the sense that he was a clear second to Valencia in the Gran Consulta. However, he picked up over a million votes, paying off his mortgage and significantly outperforming expectations. He also opened the door for some new paths in his political adventure. 

It had looked like his next step was to concentrate on a tilt for Bogotá mayor, having come in second last time around after another strong campaign. He then pulled a remarkable volte-face, accepting Valencia’s offer to run on her ticket.

That’s a move that puts him potentially in a different league than before, very much on the national stage now. It’s come at an enormous reputational price though, with many that voted for him feeling betrayed as he runs on a rightist ticket. He can claim that it’s centrist as much as he likes, but few see it that way.

Influencers

Electorates worldwide are losing patience with technocrats and politics as usual. That’s as true in Colombia as anywhere else, with a number of influencers running and doing fairly well. This is a trend that has been open for a while and shows no sign of slowing down.

Former adult actress Amaranta Hank won a spot for the Pacto Historico, while the White Elephant took a seat for the Partido Verde, having started out as a content creator looking to expose corruption and poor spending practices.

Safety

Despite fears of electoral violence and a turbulent run-up to election day, it was a relatively calm Sunday in the end. There was an attack on a voting centre in Meta, plus another couple of issues elsewhere, but overall it was a good sign for the upcoming presidential elections.

Losers

There were plenty of losers last week, with several high-profile candidates for the presidential race crashing out in their consultas. That saw Vicky Dávila unconvincingly claiming she wasn’t a loser and Enrique Peñalosa falling at the first hurdle again among others.

Farewell, too, for some familiar faces. Ingrid Betancourt failed to make the cut for Senate, losing her seat alongside her party. Jorge Robledo, the leftmost critic of Petro did likewise. Miguel Polo Polo unsurprisingly lost his seat as an Afro-Colombian representative, replaced by a principled lawyer, which delighted many.

In general, old parties and old faces fared poorly, with incumbency working against many. A striking exception to that was the party for ex-FARC combatants, Comunes. To their surprise, but no one else’s, they failed to meet the threshold for representation.

Roy Barreras

Standing in the leftwing consulta, Roy won in the sense that he saw off the threat from controversial former Medellín mayor Daniel Quintero. However, the Pacto campaign to not vote in consultas laid his lack of support bare.

Viejos Verdes

The Partido Verde managed to limit their losses in terms of seats, remaining at a similar level as before. However, there has been a significant change in who takes those curules. They had an open list, meaning that no-one was assured of a place.

Voters made it clear that they wanted to see new blood, with government critics Katherine Miranda and Cathy Juvinao voted out, along with Inti Asprilla and Angelica Lozano. 

The old Frente Nacional

For much of the last century, the Liberales and Conservadores absolutely dominated Colombian politics. For most of this century they’ve avoided running viable presidential candidates, preferring to hold their power in the Senate, Cámara and local politics. 

This time out they have taken a big hit in both houses, losing five seats between them and no longer being in the top level of voting blocs. Due to the fragmented nature of the parliament, they retain some kingmaking powers, but are a shadow of what they once were.

A big question now looms for both parties ahead of next year’s local elections. Just as the Pacto will feel they can make some big gains there, so too will the Liberales and Conservadores worry they might take more damage.

Claudia López

The former Bogotá mayor faced no real opposition in her consulta, sailing through with over 90% of the vote. However, that was 90% of not very much and she failed to get voters out to show support in the way that Valencia and Oviedo did. She faces an uphill slog from here.

Sergio Fajardo and Abelardo de la Espriella

Neither of this pair were in consultas, instead going to the second round. That’s meant they’ve been kept out of the headlines and lost momentum as well as having some unfortunate results.

The scale of the turnout for Valencia shows she’s a viable contender to Aspriella on the right and her leap in polling is matched by a significant downturn for el tigre. For Fajardo, it’s even worse: voters are largely abandoning the centre and technocratic politicians.

Trust in the system

 With the governing party repeatedly questioning the openness and fairness of the elections, this was rough. There have been a number of reports coming out questioning the practices of various voting centres and plenty of allegations, particularly from the left.

On top of that, a couple of candidates were arrested on voting day with big bags of cash that were allegedly to be used in vote-buying. While corruption in electoral processes is likely nowhere near as widespread as many claim, it’s clearly still an issue, especially in rural zones.

Centrist politics

Other than Juan Daniel Oviedo, centrists had a bad day at the polls, especially the centre-right. While the Centro Democrático and Pacto Historico gained votes on the flanks of both right and left, parties close to the centre lost out. 

Cambio Radical took a big hit, as did the conservatives, with Abelardo de la Espriella’s new Salvación Nacional party gaining three seats from literally nowhere. The partido de la U also lost a seat while Ahora! won another two seats. Poor turnout for the centrist consulta also means there seems to be little support on the presidential level.

What happens next?

The presidential election on May 31 is now very much the focus of attention. Iván Cepeda still leads the polls comfortably, with Paloma Valencia and Abelardo de la Aspriella splitting the rightwing vote at the moment. However, with over two months of campaigning time ahead, there is plenty of time for everything to change.

Gustavo Petro has shown little sign of intending to follow the guidelines on not campaigning, making references to Oviedo and Valencia as well as thinly-disguised references to Cepeda and so on. Expect this to continue and ever more strongly worded warnings from the registraduría to be ignored.

It’s also likely that there will be ever more rhetoric over electoral fraud, with the Pacto campaign leaning heavily into that already and working on raising awareness of the issue ahead of the voting for the first round.

There’s currently a very good chance that the presidential campaigns will get pretty ugly, with lots of negative campaigning and attack ads. There is no love lost between the candidates and plenty of bad blood on all sides. We’ll keep you up to date with things as the campaigns develop.

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We take a quick dive down Avenida Caracas where the raised railway is both a wonder and worry.

For citizens used to the snail’s pace of work on their city’s infrastructure, the rapid rising of the Bogota’s Metro over their heads is something to behold.

With 11 kilometers of concrete viaduct completed, and many more clicks of columns in place, not to mention stations and interchanges emerging from the rubble, the megaobra is officially at 73% completion.

For rolos who have waited three generations for a train – the first Metro plan was made in 1942 – this advance is nothing short of a miracle.

Not everyone is happy. Last week small business owners along Avenida Caracas, the last south-north sector of the construction, took to the streets to protest the “destruction and insecurity” of their neighborhoods.

“The Metro advances. The community recedes,” said the banners the protesters hung across the formerly busy throughfare now converted into a construction site.

As is typical in Bogotá protests, it was public transport in the form of Transmilenio buses that were blocked forcing thousands of commuters to walk sections of their journey home.

Hanging on by a thread

The protests ended, but the problems continued for Avenida Caracas.

This week the central section of the wide avenue was taken up by construction teams supporting the massive overhead beam launcher that dropped the pre-cast viaduct sections into place 15 meters above the street.

Meanwhile, car traffic was banned from the main artery while Transmilenio buses threaded their way past graffitied concrete columns. Pedestrians scurried out of the temporary bus stations and fast away from the apocalyptic scenes, more Blade Runner than Springtime in Paris.

Local shopkeepers told The Bogotá Post this week that business had never been bleaker.

“We’re hanging on by a thread,” said Carlos Torres of clothes store 80’s American World, on the corner of Calle 60. “We’ve had no financial help from the district, and takings are down by 80 per cent.”

He had been forced to suspend their health insurance payments for the last year and were struggling to pay the rent, he said.

Danger down below

Footfall had “fallen massively” said Angela Cruz on her way to a hair salon across the road, with people avoiding the dusty streets, partly from fear of robberies.

Avenida Caracas was “always a bid dodgy”, she said, but the attraction for thieves of the building works, with materials and machinery to pilfer, had increased insecurity.

“We’re worried when it’s finished the support columns and dark areas under the Metro will become full of attackers.”

That the Metro would shelter criminals was a recurring concern for residents. Concept drawings of the finished line depicted idyllic leafy walkways with pedestrians pushing prams.

But as every resident of the city already knows, any tunnel, underpass or covered area becomes a hotspot for crime.

And whereas the Metro planners had robust plans to control access to the overhead trains to ensure commuters travel in peace – in contrast to the Transmilenio where anyone can jump on or off – there were no clear plans to protect open spaces below.

“Walking home just got harder,” said Cruz.

Bogotá’s ‘Berlin Wall’

Similar concerns were raised recently in a speech by President Gustavo Petro when he railed against the elevated Metro plan – now near completion – as a boondoggle for property speculators and claimed that Avenida Caracas was being “destroyed by the oligarchy”.

He further suggested that the raised railway would become a “Berlin Wall, separating the rich from poor”.

Such rhetoric was not unexpected from the mandate who long championed an underground Metro, though failed to get it moving during his own term as Bogotá’s mayor (2012 to 2015). He might yet get his way; plans for Line 2, currently on the drawing board, are for an underground Metro running east west beneath the city’s wealthier northern barrios.

See also: Going Underground, Petro threatens to derail Metro.

The final plan to build Line 1 overhead, while controversial, was taken for economic reasons and speed of construction during the second mayorship of Enrique Penalosa – the founder of Bogotá Transmilenio bus system and implacable political opponent of Petro – in 2016.

The elevated Line 1 of the Metro will be 24 kilometers – one of the longest urban light rails on the continent – and have 16 stations including 10 interchanges with the Transmilenio bendy-bus network.   

Much of the line runs through poorer barrios in the south-west of the city where, even with the work unfinished, some economic benefits were being proclaimed.  

Just get it done

Thinktank ProBogotá, in a study with the Unversidad de los Andes, reported a rise in residential property values of 11 per cent in areas around Line 1. Such increases could generate investment in undeveloped pockets of the city.

In the long term, Avenida Caracas businesses were also predicting a boost from the Metro. Just not yet.

“Right now, times are hard,” said business owner Adenay Flores.  He had seen profits plunge in the 18 months since construction began, he said, while painting the entrance to his Moscu pawnbrokers.

But he also recognized that the Metro was vital to the mobility of the city and could transform lives of people living in less accessible areas.

“Yes, we’ve had hardships. But this is the evolution of the city, I totally support the Metro. Once finished it will bring people back to Avenida Caracas,” he said. “But they need to get it done.”

It was a sentiment echoed by many business owners we talked to in the shadow of the concrete viaduct: torn between welcoming the future mass transit system while keeping their financial heads above water.

“We’re suffering, but we still want the Metro. It will bring better times,” Carlos Torres from the clothes shop told The Bogotá Post. “Until then, we just have to hang on.”

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Colombians voted for a new Congress on March 8 in an election that stretched across thousands of rural towns and villages, where geography, infrastructure and the legacy of armed conflict continue to shape how citizens participate in democracy.

“I don’t like politics,” said Silvia Bedoya, 52, a resident of San Pedro de los Milagros in the mountains north of Medellín. “Instead of uniting people to move the country forward, it tends to divide us.”

Despite that frustration, Bedoya said voting still matters. “If you vote, at least you have the chance to raise your voice about something you don’t like,” she said. “If you don’t vote, you just have to accept what happens.”

More than 40 million Colombians were eligible to vote in the elections, with 13,493 polling stations installed nationwide, including 7,482 in rural areas, according to the National Registry Office. Security forces said they deployed 120,000 police officers across the country to guarantee the vote in the nation’s 1,104 municipalities.

The scale of the operation reflects the logistical challenges of voting in rural Colombia, where many communities remain separated by mountains, unpaved roads and long travel distances.

In San Pedro de los Milagros, a cattle-farming municipality in the Andean department of Antioquia, voters arriving at polling stations described a mixture of civic duty, skepticism toward politicians and concern over the country’s economic and social problems.

Mauricio Martínez, 47, declined to say who he supported, but emphasized the importance of participation. “Voting is the greatest right and duty we have as citizens,” he said.

Others said their choices were shaped by dissatisfaction with the government of President Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, whose progressive agenda – including a major land reform program – has drawn both support and criticism in rural areas.

Maicol Jovani Sepulveda, 28, said he voted for the right-wing Democratic Center (Centro Democrático) party after losing faith in promises he believed would help young people. “I believed they were going to help us study,” he said. “But I didn’t receive a scholarship and I couldn’t go to university, so I was disappointed.”

The Democratic Center won more than 40% of the vote for both the Senate and the House of Representatives in San Pedro de los Milagros, a 24% increase from 2022. Across the department of Antioquia, it was also the most voted list with over 31% of votes, followed by the ruling leftist Historic Pact (Pacto Histórico) coalition with 16%.

Some voters in the town said their support for the right reflected growing frustration with Petro’s government. Among them was María Regina Avendaño Muñoz, 63, who said she cast her vote for Centro Democrático after feeling disappointed with the administration: “I’m very sad because he promised change and convinced many young people and teachers who voted for him.”

Beyond individual concerns, analysts say structural barriers have long shaped political participation in rural Colombia.

Rural voters play an important role in Colombia’s political landscape. Although the country’s largest voting blocs are concentrated in major cities, the countryside has long been central to debates over land ownership, security and development – issues that have shaped the country’s decades-long armed conflict and remain at the center of national politics.

“When we talk about political participation, we’re really talking about processes of democratization – who gets to speak and under what conditions,” Bladimir Ramirez Valencia, a professor at the University of Antioquia’s Institute of Regional Studies who works with farmers’ organizations, told Latin America Reports.

Historically, he said, rural communities have faced both violence and logistical obstacles that limit their ability to vote. About 75% of the victims of Colombia’s armed conflict have been civilians, many of them farmers, according to historical estimates.

Distance alone can also be a barrier. “For many communities, polling stations used to be three or four hours away,” Ramírez said. “Bringing voting sites closer to those places is fundamental.”

Authorities expanded electoral infrastructure for the 2026 vote, increasing the number of polling stations by 5,5% in rural areas compared with the previous 2022 election.

In some regions of Antioquia, Ramírez said, rural residents traveled to voting sites on foot or by chiva, the brightly colored buses that connect remote villages with municipal centers.

Recent government policies may also be shaping political engagement in the countryside. Programs related to land reform, land restitution and rural development have helped strengthen the government’s legitimacy among some farming communities, Ramirez said. “When farmers feel they are being heard and see policies reaching their territories, that can influence how they participate politically.”

Still, rural voting patterns remain complex and vary widely by region. “You can find campesino families involved in social movements defending their land,” Ramírez said. “But when elections arrive, they still vote for traditional parties.”

Across Colombia’s countryside, the election reflected both deep skepticism toward politics and the determination of rural voters to take part in a democratic process that has historically been harder to reach in the country’s most remote regions.

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… but Centro Democratico bounces back, while small parties lose out in March 8 voting.

Last Sunday’s elections brought mixed results to Colombia’s capital with the left-wing Pacto Historico party cementing its position as most popular party in the city even while its main opponent the Centro Democratico showed relatively bigger gains.

With 18 Bogotá seats up for grabs in the Chamber of Representatives, the Pacto Historico, backed by President Gustavo Petro, took a majority of eight, an increase of one seat from the previous period.

And by garnering 900,000 votes the incumbent party upped its count by more than 100,000 compared to 2022, when it was also the most popular party in the city.

But by some comparisons the right-wing Centro Democratico’s result was even more impressive, surging from two to four seats on March 8, totalling 700,000 votes, up from around 300,000 in 2022.

In Bogotá, as at national level, the losers were the smaller independent parties often citizen-led or based on niche issues. Also failing was the Nuevo Liberalismo party, founded by mayor Carlos Galán, which failed to pick up a single seat, a sign perhaps of citizen discontent with the capital’s current administration.

The demise of the small and independents reflected a national trend of voter gravitation towards the two bigger parties, Centro Democratico and Pacto Historico, whose top candidates – Paloma Valencia and Iván Cepeda – are likely contenders for the presidential slug-out in May. 

The remaining Bogotá seats went to smaller traditional parties the Green Alliance (2), and the Liberal Party (1), with one seat awarded to the upstart Salvacion Nacional formed by firebrand right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella.

Political phenomenon

The stand-out result in the Bogotá caucus was Centro Democratico’s first-time congressional candidate Daniel Briceño who captured 262,000 votes for his seat in the chamber.

Not only did Briceño get the highest congressional vote across Colombia, he also out-voted the entire list of senators – which get elected nationally – with one of the historically highest ever recorded in Colombia for a camara or senado representative.

The 34-year-old lawyer was being hailed this week as a political phenomenon. Briceño is currently serving on Bogotá city council where he campaigns against corruption, cronyism and waste through a clever combination of social media and forensic takedowns of his political targets.

The influencer made his name by digging into big data on government databases that has allowed him to uncover contracts and documents embarrassing to the administration of Gustavo Petro.

Since then, he has gained both an online following and voter base by scrutinizing and exposing mismanagement at all government levels.

Defend every vote

Briceño’s jump to congress was mirrored on the political left in Bogotá by the rise of influencers Laura Beltran, aka Lalis, and Daniel Monroy, who both won seats for Pacto Historico.

Despite their success at the urns on March 8, both Monroy and Beltran amplified claims of fraud in the days after the election.

Beltran, posting on X, issued a media alert begging for lawyers in the city to volunteer their time as scrutineers to check the recount after detecting “the winds of fraud”.

“We are defending each vote for the Pacto Historico. In Bogotá we have the chance to recover one more seat,” she said, suggesting the party could up its count to nine.

Monroy, for his part, made a widely echoed claim that  “votes for Pacto Historico are disappearing”.

So far there is no evidence of electoral fraud, though changes in the final vote could come about from errors corrected in the final scrutiny taking place in Bogotá this week.

Meanwhile preliminary declarations by European Union electoral observers  – 145  were deployed to Colombia – stated that the voting process had been “transparent, accurate and well-organized”.

Voter turnout for Bogotá was 48 per cent, similar to the level of participation across the country, with the capital providing 15 per cent of the national vote. A higher turnout is expected for the May presidential elections.

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Amelia Makstutis, Lily O’Sullivan and Jonathan Hernández Nassif contributed to reporting.

Colombians went to the polls on Sunday to choose new representatives to Congress and the Senate, as well as presidential candidates for three main political blocs. Both the ruling leftist party and opposition right-wing party had good showings, setting up a potentially polarizing next legislative term. 

Despite warnings of possible political violence by the country’s illegal armed groups, elections took place “without any major security incidents” according to the United Nations mission in Colombia. Overall voter turnout was around 48%, about on par with previous legislative election years. 

With over 3,000 candidates competing for 102 Senate and 182 House seats, leftist President Gustavo Petro’s Historic Pact (Pacto Historico) party and the opposition Democratic Center (Centro Democratic) — founded by former right-wing President Álvaro Uribe — had the strongest showing Sunday. 

By 10:00 PM, with nearly 100% of preliminary votes tallied, Historic Pact secured 22.8% of Senate votes while the Democratic Center tallied 15.6%, according to the National Civil Registry. The Liberal Party (Partido Liberal), Green Alliance (Alianza Verde), and the Conservative Party (Partido Conservador de Colombia) trailed with 11.7%, 9.8% and 9.6% respectively. 

Official tallies for the lower house are still unclear, but analysts expect a divided Congress. 

The results could keep Colombia’s legislature polarized as no party was able to secure an absolute majority. Throughout his presidency, Petro has faced barriers in Congress to passing his progressive legislation and he even called for a constituent assembly to circumvent the body. 

His party’s presidential candidate, Senator Ivan Cepeda, who aims to carry the torch for Petro’s reforms, celebrated the party’s win in the senate race saying, “Today our second half begins, with a strong and committed caucus we will begin a new stage of transformations.” 

Political risk consultant Sergio Guzman told Reuters, “The left showed that it is here to stay, the ​right that it is divided, but it is not weak. We are going to have a fragmented Congress for the next legislature.”

Jeni Suarez, 41, who voted for the Historic Pact for the Senate and Congress, told The Bogotá Post in Medellin that the most important problem at the moment is the “political war from side to side.” 

Presidential primaries 

In addition to the House and Senate, Colombia also held three primary elections — known as inter-party consultations – to choose candidates for the three main political blocs: left, centrist, and right-wing. 

Two candidates currently leading in the polls — far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda — were not included in the primaries and the eventual nominees from the three consultations – “The Consultation for Solutions: Health, Security, and Education” (center); “Front for Life” (left), and “The Great Consultation for Colombia” (right) – will go on to compete against them in the first round of presidential elections on May 31. 

Sunday night’s big winner was Paloma Valencia, a protégé of former President Uribe’s Democratic Center party with a political pedigree that includes a former president grandfather and an aunt who was Colombia’s first female cabinet-level minister. 

Addressing her base at her victory party, Valencia lambasted President Petro, calling his administration “a time bomb that’s ticking down the seconds until it explodes.” 

In an interview ahead of the primaries, Valencia told Latin America Reports, “I am Uribista, and I will die Uribista,” and said she plans to follow in her mentor’s footsteps. 

Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia Lopez handily won her Consultation for Solutions primary, and former Medellín Mayor Daniel Quintero conceded to longtime politician and former Senator Roy Barreras in the Front for Life consultation. 

“I want to congratulate Roy on his victory. I will support him as required by law,” said Quintero on X. “I hope he leads us toward a process of unity.”

Election security 

In the days leading up to elections, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that non-State armed groups were using violence to control civilian populations in Colombia and could undermine election security. 

Last year, the UN recorded 18 homicides and 126 cases of attacks and threats against political leaders, including the high-profile assassination of right-wing pre-presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, who was shot in the head at rally in Bogotá’s Modelia neighborhood in June and succumbed to his injuries in August. 

On Sunday, Minister of Defense Pedro Sánchez said over 240,000 security forces had been deployed to safeguard elections, which a delegate for the National Civil Registry called a “peaceful day at the polls, except for some isolated cases in the regions.”

Voting was temporarily suspended in the rural municipality of La Macarena, Meta following an alleged drone strike by a guerilla group near a polling station, according to the National Civil Registry. The agency also denounced “100 million cyberattacks” against its website.

Other election interference, including vote-buying was also reported. Colombia’s National Police said they captured 88 people related to elections and seized over $990,000 (COP 3,761,000,000) in cash meant to influence voting. 

In the hours leading up to the election, Víctor Hugo Moreno Bandeira, the Democratic Center congressional candidate in the southern Amazonas department, was arrested with $5,200 (COP $20 million) in cash allegedly meant for vote buying. His party later suspended his candidacy. 

And Fredy Camilo Gómez Castro, a senatorial candidate for The U Party (Partido de la U), was arrested and accused of being the right-hand to Colombia’s contraband king, Diego Marín, alias “Papá Pitufo.”

On Colombia’s eastern border with Venezuela, Defense Minister Sánchez denounced mass illegal border crossings, with an estimated 2,400 people crossing the Tachira river “presumably headed to vote.”

While his party had success, Álvaro Uribe fell flat 

For the first time in his storied political career, the History Channel’s “Greatest Colombian in History”, Álvaro Uribe, failed to win a seat in the Senate. 

Projections indicate that Uribe’s Democratic Center party will secure 17 seats in the Senate, and he was placed 25th on the list of his party’s candidates, effectively excluding him from a seat. 

Uribe, who won over much of Colombia’s electorate for beating back leftist guerrillas during his presidential terms between 2002 and 2010, has come under fire in recent years for his ties to drug traffickers and paramilitary death squads. 

Last August, the controversial president was convicted of procedural fraud and bribing a witness and was sentenced to 12 years house arrest before Bogotá’s Superior Court overturned the conviction two months later.

Amelia Makstutis, Lily O’Sullivan and Jonathan Hernández Nassif contributed to reporting.

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Colombia goes off to the polls for the first time tomorrow – but what’s at stake in the first Colombian election of 2026, how does it all work and why are there claims of fraud?

National elections are taking place in Colombia in 2026, with the first taking place tomorrow morning, Sunday 8th March. This returns representatives for both houses of parliament as well as eliminating some candidates for the presidential elections coming in May.

Oversight is carried out by the CNE (Consejo Nacional Electoral). In order to do this over the vast territory and number of stations, over 800,000 citizens are selected to be vote-counters. This is similar to jury duty in other countries and is compensated with a day off as well as a compulsory day of training a couple of weeks beforehand.

As the electorate is growing, there are now some 13,000 voting sites across the country, most with multiple voting tables. Colombians have to vote where their cédula is registered, so don’t be surprised to see some people trekking to other cities if they forgot to update their registration.

Borders will close, along with various road closures within city limits and ciclovía cancelled to allow for ease of transport to voting stations. There will also be a dry law enacted from this afternoon and you can expect a heightened police and military presence.

This is the first year in which the parties representing demobilised ex-FARC combatants do not receive guaranteed seats and is also the first time the leftist bloc is coming in as incumbents rather than opposition. 

With plenty of rhetoric and conflict in the run up to the election as well as the unusual political situation of the country, these are particularly hard elections in Colombia to call. While the upcoming presidential elections in May are the bigger deal, this round will give some insight into how that might go.

What’s on the table in the Colombian elections 2026?

Both houses of parliament will be fully elected, which means 103 senators and 183 representatives for the lower house, known as the Cámara de Representantes. The key difference in choice here is whether you vote regionally or nationally.

The Senate is voted for on a national basis, with all candidates open to all voters. Of the 103 curules, a straight 100 are chosen by the electorate as a whole, while Indigenous communities select a further two and the runner-up in the presidential election will receive the final seat.

The Cámara is regionally organised, with residents of the capital voting for Bogotá-based candidates and so on. Bogotanos have 18 representatives in total, whereas departments are guaranteed a minimum of two seats. Like the Senate, there are also seats set aside for special groups: afro-Colombians, Indigenous Colombians and conflict victims.

Just in case you thought there was enough on the plate, there are further considerations at stake. To avoid spreading the vote, various presidential candidates with similar positions group together for a preliminary vote. The losers in each consulta will drop out on Monday. This year there are three on the voting card.

They are leftist, rightist and centrist. Ex-mayor of Bogotá Claudia López is nailed on for the latter and ex-mayor of Medellín Daniel Quintero is likely to win the former. The rightist consulta is more open, with Paloma Valencia of the centro democrático leading polls but Juan Daniel Oviedo and Juan Galán eyeing the outside chance of an upset.

While there is a diverse group of parties, they hang together in loose blocs roughly delineated as government, opposition and neutral. With the government only controlling 34 curules and the opposition 24, the neutrals are incredibly important for horse-trading.

This will be a huge litmus test for the ruling leftist bloc. They will lose their guaranteed  Comunes seats, so any further losses will be highly problematic. On the other hand, gaining curules would be a huge shot in the arm in terms of public support, hence why they are campaigning in places like Huila, outside of their traditional strongholds.

Continuity candidate for presidency Iván Cepeda continues to lead polling by a healthy amount, but is closer to Petro’s numbers in 2018 than 2022, which will be a concern. A good performance tomorrow will help him out considerably.

Within the consultas, Paloma Valencia’s support will be the big question. She’s likely to win, but the percentages will be a big sign as to whether she can truly challenge Abelardo de la Espriella for the rightwing vote. 

The most likely outcome is that there will be little change in the makeup of the Senate, with neither the government nor opposition likely to take outright control or make large gains. Whichever of those two groups increases their representation will quickly turn it into a sign that they are on the right track and use that as support for their presidential campaign.

What’s the background to these elections?

The run-up to the first Colombian elections of 2026 has seen a lot of criticism of the system, almost all of it coming from the national government. President Gustavo Petro has been front and centre on this issue, repeatedly questioning the neutrality of the elections.

Petro’s concerns rest on the fact that Thomas Greg and Sons handle the software used in the election system, a firm that he’s clashed with repeatedly, especially over Colombian passport printing.

He says that the systems are opaque and he has not received answers from the CNE or Registraduria over various concerns he has. However, both groups, along with Colombia’s neutral election observers MOE have been clear about the processes.

Online, there are hundreds of posts claiming that a key part of the alleged fraud will be in the reports made by the jurados. This echoes previous elections, where there was a flurry of images purporting to show electoral forms that had been altered. With AI entering the scenario, expect more of this from midday or so tomorrow onwards.

Voy a escribir porqué los escrutinio son opacos y vulnerables al fraude en las elecciones.

No porque crea que nuestro proyecto democrático vaya a perder sino porque es mi deber como jefe del estado al menos informar sobre uno de los peores riesgos de la democracia hasta ahora…

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 1, 2026

Of course, Petro is only claiming that electoral fraud exists against him, not in the multiple occasions in which he’s won at the voting urns. This is a well established populist tactic – calling elections into doubt before they happen. It’s likely to rally his turnout and provide an excuse if results are bad.

There is little credibility to most of the vote rigging claims. Colombia does indeed have some serious problems around corruption and influence buying, but this tends to be concentrated in rural zones in the periphery of the country. It’s also worth noting that these seats return candidates from across the political spectrum.

A lot of electoral impropriety is very hard to prove – the machines that promise to deliver blocks of votes are well-versed in legal limits and plausible deniability. Offering someone some free gifts in return for ‘support’, for example, is widespread and while dubious hard to prove in court.

It goes without saying that political attacks on the CNE are particularly unhelpful, especially in what is still a very charged political atmosphere nationwide. The assassination of presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe last year was a shock to a country that has a long history of political violence.

Concerns remain over both electoral safety and fraud in much of the country, with over 200 municipios at high risk of fraud and/or violence. 39 of those are classed as very high risk and only 167 at very low risk, mainly in the Andino region. 

How does the system work?

Every Colombian over the age of majority (18) and with a correctly registered cédula ciudandanía can vote. In return, each voter gets a half day off work. Non-citizens are not eligible to vote in national elections, but holders of resident visas will be able to vote in next year’s local elections.

The polls are open from 8am until 4pm and counting is usually very fast with the first results coming in before sundown tomorrow. Due to the PR system (see below), final results for some more isolated zones will come through in the week. 

Land and fluvial borders will be closed for Colombian nationals tomorrow morning, although foreigners can cross. From this afternoon until early on Monday morning, ley seca will apply, meaning no alcohol sales in bars, restaurants or shops. That applies for everyone, so no representation or boozing for foreign residents.

Some parties run a closed list system, meaning you simply vote for them, whereas others have open lists, meaning you vote for the party and can also vote for your preferred candidate within the party. For closed lists, the party will simply enter their candidates in the order they’ve given up to their limit of seats, with an open list it will be done in order of preference.

There’s also the curious option of voto en blanco. Different from a spoiled vote, which is simply disregarded, this is an active protest. If it ranks highest in any race, then a rerun of the election must take place within a month with entirely new candidates and/or party lists. 

A smidgen under 50% turnout is common for house elections, with higher figures expected for the presidential elections later this year. The Colombian parliament is a bicameral system with the Senate acting as the upper and more powerful house and the Cámara the lower house.

Most parties do not really have well-defined manifestos as such, although better-funded candidates will give a range of positions on matters. In general, there will simply be slogans and general aims that give voters an idea of where their candidates stand.

The post Colombian elections 2026: What’s at stake this weekend? appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe Velez will participate in this Sunday’s congressional election following his conviction and subsequent acquittal for procedural fraud and bribery of a public official. 

While he is last in line for a seat in his party’s list, the Centro Democrático, or Democratic Center, hopes his name will help it secure between 18 and 20 seats in the 103-seat Senate.

Uribe is returning to the ballots after resigning from the Senate in 2020, when the Supreme Court began proceedings against him over witness tampering allegations.

In Colombia’s congressional elections, parties and party coalitions can run either closed lists, where voters choose only the party and seats go to candidates in a predetermined order, or open lists, where voters can select individual candidates. Since the Democratic Center is running a closed list, being number 25 means that Uribe is the least likely candidate to get a seat in Congress for his party.

“The political strategy of placing Uribe in the 25th position is highly effective for pulling in votes and taking advantage of voters’ lack of understanding [about how closed lists work],” political advisor Felipe García told The Bogotá Post. 

The Democratic Center is a hyper-personalized party whose votes rely heavily on the stature of Uribe as the natural leader of Colombia’s political right. Therefore, it is likely that voters will go to the polls on Sunday to vote for whoever Uribe endorsed, regardless of whether he himself ends up being elected.

Legal battle

The legal case against Uribe centered on a libel suit he had brought against Senator Iván Cepeda Castro, the current leftist presidential frontrunner, who accused Uribe of being involved with paramilitary death squads. 

Uribe and Cepeda represent opposite poles of Colombia’s political spectrum. Uribe is a conservative, hardline anti-guerrilla leader, whereas Cepeda supports peace negotiations with rebels.

While investigating a separate case to the libel inquiry, authorities overheard in a wiretap that Uribe’s lawyer, Diego Cadena, had contacted jailed paramilitaries to change their testimony in Uribe’s favor.

This evidence became key to a July 2025 ruling which made Uribe Colombia’s first ex-president to be criminally convicted, with judge Sandra Heredia sentencing him to 12 years of house arrest. 

But the politician’s lawyers appealed the ruling and in October, the Superior Court of Bogotá acquitted Uribe of all charges, as the wiretap evidence against him was illegally collected.

A month before his acquittal, the Democratic Center – which was founded by Uribe – announced that its former leader would be number 25 on the party’s Senate candidate closed list.

Uribe’s 2020 resignation from the senate was seen as both a legal and political move, since it meant that his case would be picked up by the Attorney General’s Office, which at the time was headed by Francisco Barbosa Delgado, an ally of the former president.

After several failed attempts to close the case and after Barbosa left office as attorney general, the office formally charged former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez with bribery and witness tampering in May 2024. By that time, Uribe’s defense team was already alleging that the politician was the victim of lawfare.

Recently, the prosecution team in the Uribe trial and alleged victims of paramilitaries announced they would file an extraordinary appeal before the Supreme Court. The ruling is expected to carry greater legal significance than political or public impact, according to García.

Many victims’ groups celebrated Uribe’s conviction as a symbolic victory. Uribe was the president during the ‘false positives’ killings — cases in which Colombian soldiers killed civilians and falsely presented them as guerrilla members killed in combat.

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As Colombia’s northern Córdoba province continues to grapple with the aftermath of mass flooding, current and former government officials allege a pattern of mismanagement involving the Urrá hydroelectric dam.

President Gustavo Petro has accused the dam’s operators of committing an “environmental crime”, blaming corporate greed on the current natural disaster which has affected as many as 78,000 families. 

Meanwhile, the former Director of the Land Restitution Unit in Córdoba claims she was removed from her position to prevent the Urrá dam from returning land to local Indigenous groups.

Urrá’s role in the flooding

The crisis in Córdoba began at the end of January when unseasonably heavy rainfall triggered flash floods, overflowing rivers, and landslides. As of March 2, 15,000 evacuated people are still living in temporary shelters in the region, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

While climate change is a key factor in the disaster – which occurred during the dry season – there are also indications of man-made causes. 

“All flooding of Urrá onto farmers’ land is a continuation of an existing environmental crime,” wrote Petro in a post on X on February 8, claiming that the dam allowed its reservoirs to fill up excessively “out of pure greed.”

The president called for the immediate resignation of the president of Urrá, Juan Acevedo Rocha, who stepped down days later. However, Acevedo denies wrongdoing and maintains the dam’s levels were 90cm below the maximum permitted. 

Petro later took aim at Urrá’s environmental impact in the region, citing the disappearance of wetlands: “Urrá was not built to generate energy but to dry up the nation’s land and damage the entire natural flow of water in Córdoba.”

Large swaths of swampland have been drained as a result of the dam blocking water flows, which has freed up land for economic purposes like agriculture and cattle ranching.

“The drying of swamps affected the natural capacity of ecosystems to regulate flooding,” wrote Carolina García Londoño, President of the Antioquia Chapter of the Colombian Geological Society, in a column for news website La Silla Vacia.

García also described “poor management” of the dam in relation to regulating water overflow. 

“It is clear that there were failures in communication with downstream communities. They were not informed in a timely manner of the opening of the floodgates,” affirmed the disaster management expert.

An alleged pattern of corruption

Controversy surrounding the Urrá dam is not new, with the project embroiled in scandal as far back as the 1990s. In 1998, the Constitutional Court ruled that the project did not consult local Indigenous groups before beginning construction on their native land, breaching the 1991 Constitution.

But a court later accepted Colombian government arguments that the dam was vital to the country’s energy needs, with the concession that Urrá would pay indemnities to Indigenous communities.

Yet local Indigenous leaders, notably Kimy Pernía Domicó, publicly campaigned against Urrá, saying it did not comply with its commitments to Embera Katío communities. Pernía was killed in 2001 by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a prominent paramilitary group.

Years later, Ana Cristina Muñoz was appointed to the Land Restitution Unit in Córdoba and Bajo Cauca, overseeing the return of lands illegally confiscated during Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict.

“I found sufficient evidence proving that the Urrá hydroelectric plant controls 123,000 hectares of land belonging to the Emberá Katío people,” Muñoz told Latin America Reports.

But in September 2024, just one day before she was due to meet 21 Indigenous authorities to sign a formal petition for the return of land restitution from Urrá, Muñoz was removed from her position.

She alleges that she was sacked because she planned to order the restitution of lands from Urrá to the local Embera Katío Indigenous population: “Urrá was directly involved in my departure.”

Following the flooding, Muñoz has been actively campaigning in Córdoba on the promise of justice for victims of the environmental disaster.

Running as part of the Frente Amplio Unitario, she hopes to finally enact land reforms in Córdoba by being elected to the Senate.

“We need to revisit this issue, through a legal battle, to see what we can achieve,” said Muñoz

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Colombian Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez urged the public not to trust the National Liberation Army’s (ELN’s) promise to observe a ceasefire during elections this weekend.

In a speech on Monday, Sánchez cast doubt on the ELN’s pledge last month to not launch any attacks during the election period, saying: “It is very easy for them to lie.”

The defense minister reiterated calls for the public to remain vigilant ahead of the legislative elections and presidential primaries scheduled for Sunday, which have been overshadowed by the threat of violence.

“The ELN recently distributed a pamphlet stating that it will not interfere with the elections,” Sanchez said at a press conference in Bogotá on Monday. “Let us remember what happened in December, when they said they would not harm any Colombian,” continued the minister, referring to the deaths of Colombian soldiers during an ELN Christmas ceasefire. 

Sánchez also highlighted additional potential threats to the electoral process coming from dissident factions of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 

He said the groups led by Calarcá and Mordisco, as well as criminal organizations such as Los Pachenca and Los Conquistadores de la Sierra, should be closely monitored due to their past acts of violence, particularly interference in efforts to maintain a peaceful electoral environment.

To prevent any possible guerrilla attacks, Sánchez said the government has enacted extraordinary security measures across the country. 

“In response to these threats, we have deployed offensive operations and a security deployment that has allowed us to establish operational control of the area, without denying that the threat persists, but also without denying our will and our capacity to neutralize it,” added Sanchez.

The government has mobilized 246,000 members of the security forces, who will protect more than 13,000 polling stations across the country, according to the minister. Enhanced training is also taking place along with special measures such as drone‑jamming systems. 

Ahead of the elections, Sánchez reported that four ELN members, including one nicknamed “El Mono”, were arrested on March 1 for planning and carrying out terrorist actions against civilians as well as extortion. 

A Colombian Army report from 2025 recorded 165 ELN-related captures, 47 voluntary surrenders, and 15 minors recovered from armed groups during military operations.

Yet, the ELN’s stance toward the election remains unchanged, with its national leadership declaring unilateral ceasefires and emphasizing that it will continue acting in accordance with its policy in favor of the people and their freedom to act.

Previous attacks by the ELN

In the past, the ELN, officially recognized as a terrorist organization in Colombia and the United States, has carried out attacks on security forces, violence towards civilians, and kidnappings for political purposes.

Notably, the group has also launched attacks while engaging in peace negotiations, such as the car bomb at a police academy in Bogotá in 2019, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern Colombian history, which killed 22 people and injured 66. 

President Ivan Duque, who was in office at the time, condemned the attack as a “miserable terrorist act” and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

Fresh peace talks between the Gustavo Petro administration broke down in early 2025 when the ELN was blamed for violent clashes in the Catatumbo region which affected more than 90,000 people, according to the United Nations. 

The post Colombia Defense Minister questions ELN election ceasefire pledge appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commanders have for the first time in Colombian history freely admitted the armed group’s role in recruiting more than 18,677 children during five decades of their armed conflict with the state.

In a five-page document signed by Rodrigo Londoño, alias ‘Timochenko’, and five other demobilized senior leaders, the former fighters recognized their role in forcing minors into a life under arms.

Colombia’s peace court, known as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), had previously determined that the six defendants, all former members of the FARC secretariat, carried responsibility for the crimes of recruitment of minors under 15 years of age, mistreatment torture and murder of children, sexual and reproductive violence, and prejudice against minors with diverse sexual orientations or gender identities.

See also: Peace plan has caused more conflict, says thinktank.

In the letter to the court the six defendants admitted the acts and asked for forgiveness.

“There are no words to repair these deeds,” said Londoño in a televised address widely circulated this week. “Today with honesty and clarity we recognize our role.”

“We ask forgiveness from direct and indirect victims, and from society in general.”

Londoño, who was the FARC’s last field commander up until the peace signing, said he recognized that the rebel’s actions had “stolen childhoods” as young combatants faced constant fear and death.

Historical whitewashing

Londoño also acknowledged that “the homicides, forced abortions, acts of gender-based violence, and reproductive violence caused serious physical and psychological damage that still persists”.

The statement was a milestone in Case 07 of Colombia’s JEP, the special court charged with untangling crimes committed by all sides during the state conflict with the FARC.

Case 07 was opened in 2019 and has since officially recognized 18,677 victims, of which 54 per cent are children themselves recruited, and 46 per cent families who lost children to the conflict.

Other actors in Colombia’s armed conflict have used minors as well. According to Crisis Group, “right-wing paramilitary groups” counted some 2,800 children within their ranks when they demobilized in the mid-2000s.

Historically the FARC whitewashed their role in the recruitment of minors, and during the 2016 peace process vigorously denied accusations of abducting children or threatening families to hand over their children.

According to the FARC’s own narrative, many young recruits joining the Marxist guerrilla group were “volunteers escaping poverty”. The leadership traditionally downplayed reports of sexual abuse, forced abortions and the murders and disappearances of children as political propaganda.

As recently as 2015, FARC commanders were claiming that the armed group “under no circumstance recruited children, or anyone else, forcefully,” according to a Human Rights Watch report critical of the guerrilla’s position.

Never coming home

HRW’s own investigations had identified victims as young as 12 who were tied up by the guerrillas and threatened to be killed if they tried to resist. In other cases, kids were tricked with offers of presents or cash before being forced to fight under arms.

The report also cited cases of older commanders abusing girls as young as 12 in some incidents forcing them to use contraception or to have abortions.

According to JEP data presented under Case 07, child victims were present in the FARC ranks across 16 departments of Colombia, almost the whole territory controlled by the guerrilla group at its peak. Recruitment peaked between 1999 and 2013 but continued to 2016, the year of the peace accord between the rebels and the state.

Accredited to the case were 2,000 individual victims recruited as children but now adults, the JEP announced this week.

Also part of the group were families of 485 children recruited into the ranks who “never returned home”. The JEP had joined with the UPBD (Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas dadas por Desaparecidas) missing persons unit to try and locate the remains of those missing persons.

Details from Case 07 also highlighted the large numbers of minors taken from indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, with 9,000 registered victims from six ethnic groups.

Restorative Justice

According to JEP proceedures, FARC leaders’ statements this week were an important step forward in the restorative justice process. The special peace court works with a system of dialogues between accused perpetrators and victims.

Information released by the court this week defined Case 07 as still in the dialogue phase with both private and public audiences were expected in the future where victims would given the opportunity to recount their experiences.

In line with previous cases, the former FARC leaders, could chose to respond to the crimes in front of the victims. Any punishment could come in the form of an eight-year sentence of restricted liberties for the former FARC leaders, though not jail time.

As part of the sentence the JEP might recommend restorative programs – a form of social work – in agreements made with the victims.   

For its part, the former FARC secretariat announced its full support for this process. In a taped statement former commander Julián Galló also accepted his role in the crimes.

“Our compromise is to work in the future so that hopefully these cases don’t keep on occurring,” he said.

Circular problem

Repetition was already happening, according to a report published last month by Crisis Group called Kids on the Front Lines: Stopping Child Recruitment in Colombia. According to the Brussels-based think tank, the practice had “boomed in the last decade” even since the FARC demobilized under the peace process in 2016.

A new generation of armed groups still relied on minors to maintain territorial control, said the report, with 620 cases reported in 2024: “Children carry out high-risk tasks, suffer abuse, and are punished with death if caught escaping.”

Ruthless gangs were using social media posts to reel vulnerable youngsters into the conflict with false promises of wealth, status and protection, said Crisis Group. Families faced reprisals if they spoke out, the report added.

And with increased competition between fractionated armed groups, minors were being pushed to the front lines: “Kids now fight in high-risk combat roles.”

Colombia’s circular problem of child recruitment was highlighted this week by JEP magistrate Lily Rueda, presiding over Case 07, in conversation with El Espectador. The message from the peace courts was “more relevant then ever” after data from UNICEF showed that the recruitment of children in Colombia had increased by 300% in the last five years.

“This is an opportunity to reiterate our commitment to investigating and prosecuting these acts of violence against children, which constitute war crimes and are not subject to amnesty, not even in the context of peace agreements,” she said

“Victims who survived recruitment in the past should not be victimized again by the recruitment of their own sons and daughters in the present day.”

The post Former FARC chiefs ask forgiveness for forcing children into the guerrilla ranks appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Health authorities have activated over 200 free vaccination points across the city this week after two measles cases were reported.

The highly contagious virus, which is airborne and can cause serious health problems for young children, was detected in travelers from Mexico who had arrived in Bogotá and then fallen ill. Another imported case was found outside the capital.

In response the city’s District Health Secretariat said it had activated protocols to isolate the cases and had laboratories on hand to help with tracking any potential spread in the city.

Bogotá’s health secretary Gerson Bermont emphasized the need for a swift response: “Bogotá has all the infrastructure and human resources to provide technical support for diagnostic processes, he said. “The key is to act promptly to reduce local transmission.”

Measles was one of the most contagious viruses in existence and could be transmitted even by breathing, he warned. The best protection was with the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, with two doses 97% effective at preventing the disease. The three people reported this week were unvaccinated.

In June last year U.S. embassies around the world took the unusual step of issuing a warning that measles was an “ongoing global risk” and advised citizens going abroad to get jabbed.

“Travelers can catch measles in many travel settings including travel hubs like airports and train stations, on public transportation like airplanes and trains, at tourist attractions, and at large, crowded events,” said the notice.

“Infected travelers can bring the disease back to their home communities where it can spread rapidly among people who are not immune.”

Good coverage

Recent data from the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) showed outbreaks in every region of the world with high caseloads in Mexico, Yemen, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Angola and Laos.

 The World Health Organization (WHO)  declared Colombia free of measles in 2014, after intensive campaigns across the country by vaccination teams brought MMR to remote corners of the country.

Measles vaccine coverage in the country was 93 per cent for the first dose, according to data on the WHO immunization dashboard, a reasonable result for a country with access challenges for health teams

Bogotá last saw cases in 2019, when 11 persons were affected by the disease, according to data from the city’s Observatorio de Salud.  

To avoid local spread from the imported cases this week, more than 200 vaccination points were activated across the city, with details in this link of locations and opening times. Most of the sites are in existing health facilities though all are welcome and the measles vaccine is free.

The city health authorities were offering free immunization with the triple MMR vaccines (measles, mumps and rubella) known in Colombia as SRP (sarampión, rubéola y paperas) or a double vaccine of SR (just measles and rubella). Any unvaccinated or partially vaccinate person between six months old and 60 years old was encouraged to get jabbed.

The risk to Colombia “could not be underestimated” Bermont told Blu Radio this week.

“It’s bad news what’s happening in the Americas,” he said. “Last year there were 15,000 measles cases across the region. Just in Mexico there were 32 deaths”.

Bermont said mass immunization was the best method to avoid an outbreak, but region had become vulnerable from anti-vax messaging by pressure groups that gained influence during the Covid-19 pandemia.  

“We have to also recognize that today there are also health authorities in the world that throw doubt on the effectiveness of the vaccine.”

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In the north of Bogotá, a new restaurant offers an experience that exists nowhere else in Latin America. 

Sombras, or ‘shadows’, is a high-end eatery run entirely by blind people, offering a unique experience that aims to raise awareness about sight loss and the challenges faced by those living with this condition.

For 90 minutes, diners are provided a sensory experience through a six-course menu while sitting in complete darkness

This project, part of the Seratta Group, costs approximately 325,000 COP (around US$88) and seats around 20 people at a time.

According to the DANE (National Administrative Department of Statistics), in 2025, the labor gap for people with disabilities was critical: roughly 80% of the population was unemployed. Of the 20% who are employed, many relied on informal work as a way of living.

Accordingly, Sombra’s primary goal is to increase job opportunities for people with visual impairment, even offering a ‘BLINDKEDIN’ on their website to promote inclusion in workspaces and bridge the gap between companies and workers.

Into the unknown

Entering the restaurant, guests are asked to place their belongings in lockers as one of the hosts voice announces, “The main ingredient is trust.” Cellphones, smartwatches, or any other distracting items are forbidden from being used in Sombras. Bags are stored as well, so as not to create obstacles as the staff move around the room unassisted. 

Right ahead is the path to darkness; the atmosphere is filled with fear, expectation, curiosity, and excitement. Not knowing what lies inside, guests must simply walk into the unknown.

Taking small steps, hands over the shoulders of a man simply identified as ‘Agent X,’ diners are shown to their seat. Finally, they are left alone at a table that can only be perceived through touch.

A mix of music, played by a blind DJ, is the perfect accompaniment to the dishes and cocktails placed down one by one. 

Each course is served while a voice guides the guests through the dark: “Take this, move your hand to the left.” 

Scenarios described over speakers guide guests through different worlds, prompting them to reflect on how they perceive the dark. Some courses are designed to evoke childhood memories; as diners eat, the flavors, aromas, and narrations conjure up images of their grandmother’s warm soup or the salty smell of seaside holidays. 

Without the visual cue of the food, flavors meld in novel ways, and everything tastes more intense.  

Between courses, a sense of emptiness can settle in. While the mind tries to imagine colors, dimensions, and even the appearance of fellow diners, the silence and darkness produce a feeling of loneliness and a sense of nothingness. Time passes, but without a watch, it is impossible to measure. 

One cycles through intense feelings and emotions as the brain fights to understand what is happening around it. Placed in the shoes of those who live in darkness every day, guests soon realize they can effortlessly perform the ritual of eating without opening their eyes.

Beyond sight

Following the experience, the hosts revealed themselves. 

John Jairo García and Jonathan Benavides (who is responsible for personalizing the ‘Agent X’ character) are in charge of guiding guests through the journey; both men are blind and were trained to lead visitors through an immersive experience of self-reflection, self-knowledge, and incredible food.

“I am here because God gave me the opportunity. Before this, I used to work on the streets… I sang on buses, and I was also an informal street vendor,” García told The Bogotá Post after the experience. Benavides added that before joining the team, he worked as an informal door-to-door salesman.

“We try not only to serve food but to move hearts and emotions. The social perspective in our country toward people with disabilities. In this case, visual impairment is very biased,” confirmed Jonathan during the interview.

At the end, the staff arrives with a message, they invite you to be thankful for seeing colors, for seeing the world that surrounds you. As some tears begin to fall, the last reflection is a call to empathy: “Change your way of thinking and your whole life will change”.

In fact, the blind dining experience at Sombras forces more than self-reflection; it triggers a biological change in the visitor. According to research hosted by the National Library of Medicine, the adult brain has a “rapid plasticity” that triggers almost immediately when vision is blocked. In the 90 minutes spent at Sombras, diners begin to perceive the world through their other senses, assigning “visual power” to taste and touch.

Through this experience, guests can truly empathize – if only for a brief moment – with what it means to lose vision. 

“We try to make the people who visit our restaurant understand that we, even with a disability, can also be useful to society,” concluded Jonathan.

The post Dining in the dark: Inside Latin America’s only restaurant run by blind people appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Urban art has many benefits, from the colour it adds to our streets to the space it gives for political and social expression. But a more tangible benefit could be seen at a recent art auction organised by Lure media and Galería Beta, where a number of works went under the hammer to raise money for charity.

Galería Beta’s Daniela Camero Rosso told us, “I believe that urban artists are always eager to help and you see that in the fact that they are always giving workshops, and of course in the fact that they are painting on the streets and that they want to get their message across to people without getting any money in return.”

Art from DJLU, Toxicómano, Juegasiempre, Erre and others was up for auction in front of an audience that included the great and the good of the city’s art world.

Daniela added, “These are amazing artists in the Colombian arts scene and the Latin American arts scene, and the fact that they were willing to help was another thing that made the auction beautiful.”

The aim of the auction was to raise money for Fundación Pescador de Letras, which works within a disadvantaged community in Cartagena offering education and social development programmes to 120 children aged 3-12.

Daniela said that the event had been a success, thanks to the Calle 93 venue and the great artists and galleries who made people want to go and support such a worthy cause. “Of course, they get a beautiful piece of art in return for their support, which is a win-win situation,” she said.

Events like this are also important, she added, because they help to change the perception of urban art in Colombia which – although still considered by some to be vandalism – ought to be valued as highly as other forms of art. 

The post Going, going, gone appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Colombian Pacific music is on the rise thanks to the growing popularity of the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival. The Bogotá Post spoke to musicians and industry professionals to find out why. 

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Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend this year’s Petronio Alvárez Pacific Music festival, a celebration of Colombian Pacific music which will take place in Cali from August 14 to 19.

We spoke to Diego Gómez, Llorona Records founder and producer, who is also a traditional Colombian music veteran, about the rise in popularity of Pacific sounds.

The post Is 2019 the start of a new era for Colombian Pacific folk music? appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

The Bogotá Post visits rural communities in Colombia’s most forgotten corner and hears first-hand how armed groups continue to terrorise rural communities.

Sarah Lapidus

W

hen the Colombian government signed the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC, many thought the conflict was over. But the FARC’s conversion from an armed group to a political party has left a power vacuum in rural areas where their guerrillas were once present.

Filling this gap are drug gangs, re-emerging guerrilla groups, and shadowy armed groups. And, as in the past, these fighters are now targeting civilians and small-scale farmers, often from both afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.

Those who speak out are most at risk. According to the Defensora del Pueblo, since the start of 2016, over 460 social leaders have been assassinated. 

So even as communities struggle to adapt to the post-conflict era, and preserve the memories of the victims from decades of state conflict with the FARC, new threats are on the rise.

Nowhere is this more apparent than Alto Guayabal, a village and Emberá Katío indigenous reserve set in the rainforest of Chocó, Colombia’s wildest and most westerly department.

“The conflict  has worsened. The ELN guerillas continue to commit crimes, assassinate and carry out kidnappings. Also, the paramilitaries, like the AGC, are stronger than ever. There has been little political effort, especially by our president, Iván Duque,” 22-year-old local activist Larry Mosquera tells The Bogotá Post during the second Festival de Memoria held in Alto Guayabal. 

The annual festival is organised by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP), a human rights nonprofit watchdog. The commission has also assisted the Embera community to create a humanitarian zone where – in theory – armed groups are banned. However, that ban is proving hard to enforce: in the weeks before our visit the indigenous community had reported gangs with guns terrorising villagers. 

But even with these recent threats, the Festival de Memoria goes ahead in Alto Guayabal, bringing together dozens of people from all sides of the conflict – ex-military, ex-FARC, and civilian victims – to share their stories.

A chance to speak out

Also present are delegates from Colombia’s Truth Commission, whose role is to listen and gather victim’s stories. It is part of the transitional justice agreement born from the FARC’s peace process with the state.

Danilo Rueda, the national coordinator of the CIJP, addresses attendees in the communal gathering hut: “The goal is for everyone to recount what they have experienced and what they feel, without accusing anyone,” he says. “This is about having a conversation, because we are convinced that through dialogue we can construct a different country. Words heal the soul.”

A Truth Commission delegate stands up to ask the group, “not to judge others, but simply to understand what is happening in society and how we were able to stop the war.” 

The conflict victims we talk to are grateful for the chance to tell their stories in front of the Truth Commission delegates, but they also worry that as they look back at the old conflict, a new one is emerging. For some it feels that the war never ended.  

“For us, there is no peace,” says Jorge Eliezer, sitting next to his partner in one of the communal huts. Armed men have threatened to kill him.

“They killed my cow, took our food, and fumigated our land,” he says. “And still, the government hasn’t kicked them out yet. They haven’t fulfilled their promise of land redistribution. The businesses are still there, and they look for intermediaries to enter [our territories] to rob us.” 

His story follows a narrative common in Colombia, according to human rights groups, whereby people with business and commercial interests use armed groups to threaten small-scale farming and indigenous communities, all part of a plan to force them to give up their land or sell it at a low price. 

In their effort to dislodge farmers from their properties, these gangs will escalate their threats to murder and massacres. Fear of these attacks can displace thousands of people and even whole communities. 

The CIJP has documented dozens of these types of threats and attacks. In fact the week following the Festival de Memoria, seven militia entered the community in a failed attempt to murder indigenous Embera community leader Bernado Zapilla. He was kidnapped and injured after being mistaken for another community member. They were thought to be members of the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), one of the powerful armed groups that has grown since the peace deal was signed.  

Keep pushing for peace

Meanwhile, victims displaced by previous waves of violence are still waiting for financial reparation and restitution of land previously stolen. 

Many barriers still exist to getting back to their land, explains 16-year-old Diomedes Daveiba: “We want to return to where we were living before, but we can’t return. There are too many mines. We want them to clean up the mines on the roads, but there is no effort by the government.”

Meanwhile in the midst of continued conflict, communities like Alto Guayabla keep pushing for peace, explains El Espectador columnist Laura Mendoza, also taking part.

“In Colombia we talk about constructing peace. This event is constructing peace. None of us work alone in supporting the process, in raising awareness. There is a lot of work being done despite the continuous violence,” she explains. 

It’s a theme taken up by Larry Mosquera. Despite the continued violence, assassinations and fear in the community, he underlines the need to keep going. 

“The situation is very sad, but in the rural communities we continue to resist and fight for true and sustainable peace.”

The post Post-conflict: No peace in the Chocó appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Bogotá Art District: A taste of some of the visual delights on offer in San Felipe.

Emily Hastings

There’s been a mini art revolution brewing in San Felipe for some years now. With 16 galleries in what’s become known as the Bogotá Art District, or BAD, the small zone has become a hub of creativity.

It’s not quite the Soho of Bogotá – or Boho as it should probably be called – but the creative community is already a firm fixture on the city’s art landscape. Indeed, San Felipe is one of the three districts to be included in the ARTBO weekend circuits.

What takes me there on a rainy Saturday is ‘Experimenta el Arte’, an event organised by Lure media (the team behind the comprehensive Living in Bogota guide). Lure’s boss, Boris Kruijssen tells me, “After we received several requests, we decided to move into organising experiences – we want to help people to uncover some of the city’s hidden secrets.”

The walking tour began at Galería Beta, which is run by Daniela Camero Rosso. She gives us a potted history of San Felipe, and explains that the man behind the area’s artistic development is architect and patron of many Colombian artists, Alejandro Castaño.

“This collector succeeded in getting various of us to move into the barrio, and then the other galleries started to come in a natural way,” she explained.

We were lucky enough to visit Castaño’s private collection – an Aladdin’s cave with practically every inch of wall (and indeed floor and parts of the ceiling) crammed with the work of artists from all over the continent. Camero told us that Castaño has supported a number of Colombian artists from their early days and continues to do so, a passion that shines through in the sheer volume of art. From videos in cubby holes to a dragonfly that flickers to life; chanting miniature crowds brought alive through a vinyl record to paper guns carved into the pages of a book; at every step and every turn there’s something else to catch your eye.

The two floors of Camero’s Beta gallery reflect the two sections of their collection. “One of modern art,” Camero enthuses. “That branch is focussed on contemporary art, particularly abstract and conceptual art.” We see this downstairs in Diego Mendoza’s woodblock prints showing an upside-down world of trees and machinery.

Upstairs, we are transported to the colours of La Candelaria with the familiar styles of well-known graffiti artists like CRISP and DJ Lu. Awash with colour, the urban art branch of the gallery opened two years ago. Camero says, “Our goal is to promote art more in open spaces, not only in closed ones.” That’s why they have done 15-20 interventions, when art takes over a public space as a sort of pop-up gallery area, within the neighbourhood.

The SGR gallery is a different beast entirely. We are greeted by a mess of melted wax chairs in front of a static screen – mirrored on the other side of the room by rows of pristine chairs lined up in front of a screen showing a chair. A symbol for nations of couch potatoes melting into images of themselves?

The galleries are not the only interesting thing about San Felipe. If you haven’t yet discovered Chichería Demente, an open plan restaurant that opened a few months ago, you are in for a treat. I’d go back time and again for their zucchini fries and palmitos frescos alone.

If the fries can’t tempt you, San Felipe is simply a must for anyone who wants to get a better feel for contemporary Colombian art.

Check it out:

Galleries of San Felipe: FLORA ars + natura, SKETCH, Instituto de vision, Liberia, Casa 4, 12:00, Galería Beta, Permanente, Rincón Projects, Estudio 74, Casa Valhalla, SGR, Espacio KB, Estudio 101, Plural, Fundación Arkhé.

 

If you are thinking about checking out the big BAD art district, Camero recommends the noches de San Felipe (@nochesanfelipe). Every two months, all of the galleries open their doors between 7pm-10pm.

Lure will also organising activities in San Felipe from June onwards. Contact them on info@luremediagroup.co or instagram @lurecityguide to find out more.

The post Not half BAD appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

During the last six years e-commerce in Colombia has increased remarkably.

According to a study published by the Colombian Chamber of E-Commerce, approximately 82% of the Colombian population over the age of 15 years now is online every day of the week.

Growth of e-commerce has occurred in all segments of society, despite challenges faced by the most vulnerable of the country’s population. Smartphones are the first means by which users in the country transact online (93%), followed by laptops (36%), desktops (28%), smart televisions (16%), and tablets (11%).

What’s been the impact of COVID-19 on Colombian e-commerce?

The arrival of the coronavirus has had an impact worldwide, Colombia not withstanding. For example, in Colombia’s capital of Bogota, messaging and home services have increased by 28%, a higher figure compared to last March.

In a study carried out by MercadoLibre, 4 out of 10 Colombians had changed their purchasing habits through e-commerce as a result of COVID-19.

In the last four weeks in the country, there’s been a reported increase of 190,000 searches related to products in health categories such as face masks (10 million), antibacterial (3.5 million, gel alcohol (8.5 million), thermometers (1 million ) among others.

Searches related to products for health protection have increased 11x more than usual. Purchases of basic necessities have also increased, specifically groceries, personal hygiene products and medications.

In total MercadoLibre’s platform registered more than 1.7 million new users in Latin America. Since Covid’s arrival in the region, of which 56% made at least 1 or 2 purchases within the platform, 20% made at minus 2 purchases and 24% made more than 3 purchases.

E-commerce has increased over 1000% in past decade

In 2018 Colombia ranked fourth in Latin America in sales via e-commerce, with $6 billion USD in sales being recorded.

Adobe, the Fortune 500 tech behemoth, this past quarter partnered with Medellin multinational Talos Digital in a collaboration aiming to expand e-commerce footprints in Latin America. According to Talos, the e-commerce market in Latin America will reach $70 billion USD in 2020.

While there are a number of ways e-commerce needs to improve in the region, including in shipping and transportation, the region has been consolidating itself into one of the most attractive markets in the world.

By 2021, e-commerce retail sales in Colombia are expected to exceed $ 10 billion, thus bringing the country to the same level as countries like Argentina and Mexico. Brazil today remains the country with the highest sale of e-commerce in Latin America.

The post A look into Colombia’s e-commerce industry in the time of COVID-19 appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

And now for something completely different.

It may boggle the mind, but there are apparently people out there who prefer to drink alcoholic beverages that aren’t beer. While those people are unequivocally wrong, it is worth pointing out that cider is also a lovely and enjoyable alcoholic refreshment, and that you can get hold of Colombia’s first ever cider right here in the capital. 

In 2013, Aotearea New Zealander Dan Hill was looking for an excuse to stay in Colombia after his contract with the country’s Air Force was up. He’d been in Colombia for three years by then, and it occurred to him that one thing this country didn’t seem to have, just as its craft beer industry was about to take off, was a cidery. Cider was booming in the States and the UK at the time and he couldn’t understand for the life of him why no one had really given it a crack here. He was introduced by his rugby teammate to Jairo Andrés Venegas, a local cricket and rugby fanatic (first Colombian wicketkeeper to represent the national team), and by the end of the year, they were working on the beginnings of Golden Lion Cider. Eight years later, the pair now run one of Bogotá’s biggest craft booze success stories.

Hailing from the small town of Timaru, just south of Christchurch, Dan has a background in homebrewing and spent five years in England before arriving here in Bogotá. As the cidery’s slogan quite literally states, that’s where the inspiration originally came from. 

Starting the country’s first ever cider business hasn’t been nearly as straightforward as one might have expected it to be. Invima (Colombia’s national medication, food and beverage regulator) threw up hurdle after hurdle (even at one stage claiming that the product needed to be made in a specific area of Europe in order to be called cider) at the trailblazers. At one stage they spent eight months just paying rent and awaiting certification before being able to sell their product. Dan and Andrés insisted on playing it by the book and in 2017, they finally managed to sell the country’s first ever nationally licensed bottle of cider. 

There’s no argument that it was worth the wait though. Golden Lion currently has the capacity to pump out 10,000L of cider a month and their product can be found all over the city, including on the shelves of Carulla. Dan still hopes that he and Andrés can grow their influence over Colombian drinking preferences, and the former seems to welcome any future competition with open arms – ‘The difficult thing is getting people to try cider in the first place’, he says. ‘The more cider that’s here, the more likely people are to try it.’

The cider

Golden Lion Cider is made with apple juice imported from Chile and Argentina. They use a mix of juice from six different varieties of apples, in order to blend in varying degrees of acidity, sweetness and bitterness. The fermentation is slow and controlled over 4-5 weeks to maximise flavour and quality consistency.

The cider starts off sweet with a touch of bitterness to follow, before a tart, dry after-taste. It’s refreshing, as crisp as the apples it’s made from, and perfect for those glorious Bogotá days when the sun’s out. 

How to get ‘em

Other than popping into your local Carulla, the easiest way to get hold of Golden Lion is to jump on their website. They sell by six-pack, 12 pack and cases of 24, which will set you back COP$30,000, $50,000 and $95,000 respectively. Delivery goes out within 48 hours (except for 

weekends) and generally costs around $6,000, depending on where you are. Various pubs also have it on tap.

You can pay through the website or directly into the company’s Bancolombia account.

The post Golden lion cider: not beer but delicious appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Latin America (LATAM) is currently at a pivotal point for Venture Capital (VC). The region had a hallmark year in investment in 2021, but as they say—what goes up, must come down. 

The region isn’t alone in its investment slowdown, however. Overall, global venture funding is down significantly, according to Crunchbase—mostly as a result of numbers being compared to record highs. And naturally, when records are set, a slowdown is not only predictable but is sometimes even projected. 

This past spring, the Latin American Business Associations (LABA) VC conference made this very prediction for LATAM’s regional market. Leaders forecasted this partly because LATAM still lacks a lot of the entrepreneurial infrastructure that startups need, such as more seed investors and better infrastructure. 

But not all hope is lost. 

In an interview with Bloomberg Linea, Carlos Ramos De la Vega, the VC director for LAVCA, an association for private capital in Latin America, said there is still a positive outlook for LATAM. According to the association’s data, 2022 is already the region’s second-strongest year for LATAM’s VC—meaning that the movements made by founders and investors on the ground floor will be critical for where the business sector lands at the end of 2022.

For Colombia, this slowdown could actually be an excellent opportunity to achieve certain benchmarks that need to improve in order to be more competitive in the LATAM VC landscape. 

Fostering the growth of its technological infrastructure, building strategies that help pique the interest of both local and international investors, and developing a supportive network for entrepreneurs on the ground floor will help Colombia evolve into a more mature player in the  LATAM business ecosystem.

Stage 1: Fostering Colombia’s Technological Boom

As of 2022, Colombia is one of the top economic contenders in LATAM alongside Mexico and Brazil, and the country’s economic year in 2021 blew away forecasts—growing at the fastest pace seen in more than a century. This has a lot to do with the country quickly getting on board with digital implementation, allowing modern industry to hit its stride. With much of Colombia’s economic rebound between 2021-2022 due to the technology industry, the country is experiencing a technological renaissance.

Out of the roughly 50 million Colombians, nearly 34 million started using the Internet following the onset of the pandemic, of which about 22 million then became regular online shopping users. According to the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CCCE), in 2021, eCommerce remained at levels of more than double what was registered in 2019—even when physical stores had reopened their doors.

“The e-commerce sector went from being considered as a complementary sales channel to becoming the engine for economic reactivation,” said María Fernanda Quiñones, executive president of the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CCCE).

This interest in the digital interface is good for innovation and local startups looking to lead the technological transformation. Yet, only 2% of Colombian companies carry out cross-border operations through electronic channels—making for some seriously untapped potential in the country’s online market. The CCCE is one governmental entity currently taking steps to implement infrastructure that will help get the ball rolling for companies wishing to digitize operations. 

“We recently launched eXporta.online, a free digital platform which is sponsored by Google. The platform seeks to prepare people, medium to small enterprises, and entrepreneurs for cross-border electronic commerce,” continued Quiñones. 

The platform analyzes close to 1,517 data points collected from different sources such as the World Bank, UNCTAD, and International Trade Center, among others. The data then creates an automated process that provides recommendations for the three best destination market options for companies who are looking to start utilizing eCommerce. The engine chooses these destinations based on the ideal confluence of demand, market stability, eCommerce, language, and access to that company’s product.

“Through cross-border e-commerce, businesses have the opportunity to diversify their market and not depend solely on the local economy,” said Quiñones. “In addition, strategic alliances can be created abroad that allow businesses to gain experience and become more competitive, expand opportunities, and increase their sales capacity.”

Digitizing commerce will be vital for ensuring that Colombia can remain competitive within the larger regional and international business markets. Now technologically primed and ready, the country can provide new opportunities to startups hailing from the country.

Stage 2: Transitioning Colombian VC From Seed to Series A 

Within the last decade, VCs from all over have been looking to Colombia for investments. Thanks to startups showing significant growth in both size and number, the VC sphere in the country has seen a noteworthy upward trend. 

This is backed by 2021’s numbers, as Colombia increased its overall value of funding to $1.24 billion—making for a 144% increase compared to 2020. Rappi is one example from the country that has helped to prove Colombian startups have the capacity to increase their valuations tenfold and build multi-billion USD companies. 

But this unicorn was the first of its kind, and there are many other startups in the ecosystem wondering how they can also see this kind of success.

“Startups have to show their path to profitability,” says Diego Noriega, Managing Partner at Newtopia, a venture capital firm that has made 60% of its most recent investments in Colombia. “It doesn’t always have to be immediate, but investors are preferring startups that have done their homework in making their company robust and know how to scale themselves.” 

According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), carried out by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Colombia actually presents the best conditions for entrepreneurship out of all the countries in LATAM. Investors’ confidence in the country has also grown at a global level, with Colombia now ranking at 25 as an investment destination worldwide. 

Global investors often inspire the growth of capital into emerging markets. With international investor notoriety, a ripple effect in funding occurs, leading to investment from multiple local sources and leveling up the market. This gives growing startups access to the knowledge and resources it takes to scale globally. It also means that founders and their teams must step up to the new level of play.

“At the beginning of a startup’s lifecycle, trust (from investors) is built around the problem that the company is solving, as well as their internal team. But, for Series A the game changes dramatically,” says Noriega. “Startups are not going to reach Series A unless they can show metrics that they can do so. There is no magic trick to fast-track this. Companies must achieve revenues and growth rates that show traction to get the interest from VCs who invest at this level.”

The next critical step for Colombia’s emerging businesses is to show investors that they have what it takes to climb the investment ladder from the seed stages to Series A—helping to propel the country to new entrepreneurial heights.

Stage 3: Creating a Supportive Startup Ecosystem

With digital transformation well on its way, and increasing interest from local and foreign investors, Colombia’s last step in maintaining competitiveness in LATAM commerce will be to build a supportive network for startups and enterprises alike. This is especially important in the current funding drought, and even more critical for developing startups that are just coming into their own.

According to Embroker, about 70% of startups fail during years two to five. This phase of hardship is termed “The valley of death”, and typically occurs after the company launches a product but has not yet seen any revenue. For Colombian companies navigating these growing pains, experiential insight can go a long way.

“The CCCE understands the importance of the country’s medium to small enterprises. This is why we seek to create a large community of companies, brands, and people with immense relationship potential that everyone can benefit from,” said Quiñones. “Training is still needed to develop new skills for entrepreneurs in their digital appropriation process. Understanding the importance of business models in digital commerce will make it easier to complete and foster sustainable digital transformation over time.”

The CCCE offers asynchronous courses that guide business owners and entrepreneurs in the construction of their internationalization plans. By improving the business sector’s digital literacy, and working on the articulation of state policies, they hope to promote the adoption of technology to both mature and emerging companies.

Startups also need to understand how the global marketplace works in Colombia, and this is where more seasoned players can come in to help support young startups. The insight of those who have come before them will help emerging companies understand the complexities of the business market within Colombia. 

Newtopia, a hands-on VC firm based in Argentina, is helping to connect startups from either side of the growth spectrum in the Colombian community. One of the most active venture capital firms in LATAM, Newtopia, recently arrived in Colombia to join the country’s entrepreneurs as they find the right product-market fit. Newtopia offers a hands-on mentorship model that guides startups through the more vulnerable initial stages—helping them to grow sustainably.

“Early-stage growth is vital. Without this, it’s impossible to achieve later stages. Latin America is a higher-risk market because sometimes there is no traction and in some cases, no product or revenue—a risk not many VCs are willing to take. At Newtopia we aim to help build startup-to-startup relationships to create healthier local, and thereby regional, ecosystems.”

Each semester, the VC accepts 10-15 startups for a 10-week program, filled with content and advice to help teams take their startups to the next level. The aim of the program is to share knowledge, channel smart money, and enhance experiences for early-stage startups. This week, the VC hosted a demo day in the capital city of Bogota, bringing startups together to exchange knowledge on navigating Colombia’s startup ecosystem.

This limited partner (LP) day was an opportunity for Colombian startups to pitch to Newtopia´s team, plus LPs, and investors hailing from top VCs in the US. Up-and-coming Colombian startups such as Beu, Ubanku, Lizit, Creditop, Orkid, and Alfred were all a part of the session. 

A Future for Colombia’s Entrepreneurial Community 

For Colombia to continue its consistent climb as one of the region’s most viable markets for startups, young companies must show VCs that they can achieve bigger outcomes—which will allow the ecosystem as a whole to graduate to the next level. 

“We must work together, as a society, to articulate the factors that will lead us to a digital as well as an inclusive economy,” said Quiñones. “This will help to promote the country as a business leader in the region.”

The future of Colombia’s startup community is bright, but ensuring that each one of these stages is achieved along the way will help the country commence a new wave of impacting startups for both the LATAM and global markets. 

Disclaimer: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company. 

The post Fueling The Startup Ecosystem: The Stages of VC Evolution in Colombia appeared first on The Bogotá Post.

Startups from every corner of the map had a tough time in 2022, with global VC funding down 69% from $70 billion in November 2021. In the European Union (EU), the aftershocks of this financial hit were felt unequally amongst its member countries, however, on account of an imbalanced startup ecosystem.

The majority of fundraising for EU startups takes place in the West, accounting for 60.4% of private equity in 2021, with Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) only receiving 1% of funding, according to the most recent data from Invest Europe. Widening the gap are structural disparities in access to technology and digitization amongst member countries.

According to a report by the European Commission, the EU needs to stay vigilant in its regulation of competition amongst its member states, especially in the current post-crisis rehabilitation. 

BEYOND, a consortium of investors and accelerators backed by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, is spearheading an initiative to help close the funding gap in Europe and establish a more cohesive and prosperous economic network. 

“We recognize the importance of balancing the opportunities provided to startups across the EU. If we don’t act now to narrow the gap between mature and emerging startup ecosystems, Europe’s business ecosystem as a whole will suffer,” said Jesus Tapia, Head of the ISDI Accelerator and one of the BEYOND partners.

“BEYOND is a platform that connects startups, investors, accelerators, and business mentors from across the EU and provides a framework for trust, collaboration, and sharing resources that will uplift emerging players, making the whole ecosystem stronger,” he said.

Equity in entrepreneurship

Europe offers a startup landscape much different from the US because its hubs of entrepreneurship aren’t concentrated in select cities, such as Silicon Valley. According to McKinsey, only 30% of European startups have located their headquarters to hubs such as Paris or Stockholm. 

With a completely decentralized startup space, a huge opportunity for new hubs to be established exists. This allows startups to establish themselves freely across locations and invites the opportunity for programs that encourage entrepreneur mobility. 

One such program is BEYOND, which was created by a consortium of partners across Europe, including: 

• Accelerace, a Scandinavian accelerator that’s helped to grow 800+ startups including Trustpilot, Templafy, and Densou. (Denmark) 
• ISDI Accelerator, the venture builder from one of Spain’s leading business schools. (Spain)
• FundingBox, a European Deep Tech funding ecosystem that counts over 470 startups accelerated and €80 million under management. (Denmark/Poland)
• Overkill Ventures, a leading Nordic-based angel fund investing up to €200,000 in early-stage companies. (Latvia) 
• XLRadar, an accelerator program in different verticals for pre-revenue startups that awards equity investments of up to €50,000 + follow-on as well as many added-value services. XLRadar is backed by Sofia-based venture capital firm Innovation Capital. (Bulgaria)

BEYOND is a platform where leading influencers from more developed ecosystems in Europe can help to create stronger pathways to lesser-known but still thriving startup ecosystems. 

Through its Virtual Accelerator Marketplace (VAM), the BEYOND platform directs investment flows from more developed ecosystems toward emerging ones, according to a press release shared with The Sociable. 

The VAM performs a variety of tasks to increase the effectiveness and dependability of investment between EU nations, thereby promoting a healthier, more diverse, and more inclusive network of startups within the larger EU business ecosystem.

Initiatives for inclusiveness

Startups have had their endurance tested by a multitude of factors in 2022, but none more so challenging than the funding lull. According to the consortium, filling out applications for funding opportunities from organizations such as the European Commission, as well as publicly available funding opportunities from VCs and corporations, can take founders as much as 150 hours. 

To try and mitigate this, some of the BEYOND program’s initiatives include: 

• The development of a cross-border funding passport, called OnePass, that streamlines startup fundraising while also making it easier for investors to invest in them. 
• An acceleration approach that can be used by both mature and emerging ecosystems to build trust and exchange resources. 
• A marketplace where platform partners’ resources are available to companies (including accelerators and investors). 
• A reward system for partners so they can profit from adding value for startups. 
• A global marketplace for startup investment.

OnePass will serve as a centralized platform, allowing startup founders to submit a single application to gain access to curated financing and funding opportunities, as well as customized mentoring, training, and acceleration while lowering the barriers to securing investment. 

Additionally, the OnePass funding passport provides investors with access to vetted, trustworthy entrepreneurs from all over Europe. Meanwhile, it assists accelerators and incubators in matching their programs with qualified applicants, providing certificates upon completion, and significantly reducing the amount of time applicants must spend on the application process.

Funding for all

Cross-integration between Europe’s mature and emerging markets will be vital for the future of entrepreneurialism in the union. 

By helping local startups secure funding from larger EU investors, initiatives such as BEYOND can inspire capital holders from Eastern Europe who have traditionally refrained from funding to be motivated to get into the VC game. This will encourage and attract founders to launch companies in more countries and can facilitate a more cohesive yet diverse ecosystem. 

Furthermore, the BEYOND program will help startups in the EU to achieve greater exposure and connections, while also enabling investors to get to know promising young businesses —  helping to build synergy amongst all of the EU’s players. 

Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.

The post There’s a funding gap for startups in Europe. BEYOND has launched to close it.  appeared first on The Bogotá Post.