On March 8, for the first time in Colombia’s history, an artificial intelligence candidate appeared on ballot papers across the country.
Gaitana IA (AI) ran for the Indigenous seat in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the northern state of Sucre.
While Gaitana did not win a seat in either of the country’s legislative bodies, it has sparked debate about the role of AI in Colombian politics.
With the ballots counted, Gaitana won a total of under 3,000 votes – less than 2% of the total votes for the Indigenous seat – suggesting that many people remain skeptical of this new digital approach.
Many questions have emerged surrounding Gaitana, such as why the Registraduría—the Colombian entity in charge of validating and accepting candidates—permitted this unprecedented candidacy, or what the intentions were behind the AI.
“Many local media outlets talked about an AI going to Congress, but that is not the case; they are humans leading the project,” Gaitana’s co-founder, Natalia Aase, told The Bogotá Post.
“It is actually a consensus tool developed by our community members, between 14 and 25 years old, from the Senú community of Reparo Torrente, in Coveñas,” she explained.
Rather than planning for the AI to assume office, Gaitana was devised as a democratic experiment underpinned by real human candidates
Aase detailed how the platform was designed to work: Colombian citizens could subscribe through a link to virtually participate and propose various debates regarding topics such as healthcare, women’s rights, and more. These interactions would also feed the AI database.
Once an initiative reached a collective consensus, the people occupying the seats in Congress would “decide the direction of the proposed laws.”
The two humans represented by Gaitana were Carlos Redondo Rincón, a Mechatronics Engineer from the Senú community, who was running for Senate, and Luz Rincón, an Embera-Katio Indigenous sociologist, who was seeking a seat in the House of Representatives.
The co-founder of Gaitana also revealed that the team conducted deep research into global democratic models, such as the one in Norway, and compared them with their own community dynamics.
As the research advanced, the team found that their community in Senú had already established a model of social interaction that worked well, prompting them to launch a digital project modeled on their own practices.
This meant digitizing their traditional way of reaching a consensus; in the Senú community, men, women, and youth gather around tables to discuss specific topics, such as women’s health or local fishing.
“Gaitana IA is not a generative AI; it is a participatory AI. What does that mean? Well, it is not ChatGPT. Instead, it takes the information provided by the users and organizes it,” pointed out Aase. “Transparency and security are the most important things for us; that is why we use blockchain technology—a system of blocks—to power this platform.”
According to Aase, the project was born from a motivation to prevent corruption and explained that with ‘Gaitana AI’, the decisions are not made by a single person but must be approved by at least 100 people.
“You might be able to manipulate one individual, but you cannot manipulate a hundred if you don’t even know who they are,” she concluded.
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Medellín, Colombia – Prominent female journalists, writers, academics and columnists in Colombia have drafted and signed a declaration titled ‘No to the pact of silence’ in response to former president Andrés Pastrana’s appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) was mentioned 57 times in files linked to Epstein, who was convicted for sexual trafficking and exploitation of minors before his death in 2019. The ex-president appeared in the batch of documents released last November by the U.S. Justice Department.
The declaration called on Pastrana to issue a statement as a matter of public interest, posed 20 questions to the ex-president, and demanded urgent measures to protect women and girls in Colombia.
The Epstein files have caused scandal across the world, implicating some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, including names like Bill Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, were both convicted for their involvement in the sex trafficking network. Epstein was found dead in 2019 in his prison cell in New York and Maxwell has been in prison since 2022.
In Colombia, the release last November of 3 million additional files linked to investigations into Epstein revealed connections between Pastrana and the late billionaire.
These included: a photo of Pastrana and Maxwell wearing Colombian Air Force uniforms at a military base; compromising emails with Maxwell; testimonies in which Maxwell said the two were friends and that she flew a Black Hawk helicopter in Colombia; and an alleged flight on a private plane with Epstein and disgraced modelling agent Jean Luc Brunel, who was accused of procuring minors for the late financier.
The ‘No to the pact of silence’ declaration was conceived mostly by female journalists while they were investigating Pastrana’s involvement in the files.
The statement was published on February 24, signed by 35 women, but has since been opened up to include other women through one-to-one invitations.
“The crimes committed by Epstein and Maxwell, and their extensive network of accomplices among the world’s social, political, financial, and intellectual elites, must be subject to exposure, investigation, thorough analysis, and, if applicable sanctions,” the declaration stated.
Colombian journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo, one of the creators and signatories of the declaration, spoke to The Bogotá Post about the reasons behind it.
“It is of public interest in several aspects. First, because he is a person who was elected by popular vote. He was a President of the Republic, and with greater responsibility comes greater scrutiny from citizens,” said Restrepo.
Currently, the declaration has 171 signatures that meet three requirements: to be a woman, to be a feminist, and to have a public voice. Signatures must also be made in individual names, not on behalf of collectives.
While there were men that showed support and wanted to sign the statement, Restrepo explained that only women were allowed: “Many thanks, but they – men – can write their own declaration. Why didn’t they think of it before?” “It has a symbolic power that we are all women,” she added.
The statement also took aim at the wider issue of sexual violence in Colombia. It highlighted that more than 50 minors are abused per day, according to the Institute of Legal Medicine in 2025. Also, in the last five years more than 100,000 girls and adolescents were victims of sexual abuse, according to the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF).
“Women’s human rights and the primacy of girls’ rights are historic achievements: protecting them is a mandatory duty. We demand that the silence surrounding the mentions of Andrés Pastrana in the Epstein files be broken,” the declaration stated.
Restrepo said that the pact of silence their statement seeks to redress is “one arm of something bigger”: a patriarchal pact that has existed for centuries.
“It is a tacit pact among men who hold power and belong to the elites to protect one another in the different things they do – not only sexual crimes, but also, let’s say, economic matters,and issues in society. They cover for each other,” she explained.
In addition to calling for an end to the pact of silence, the declaration posed 20 questions to Pastrana. These were drafted based on the Epstein files, but also with other evidence, following a methodological journalistic investigation by Restrepo, Diana Salinas and the Cuestión Pública team, Daniel Coronell and Ana Bejarano.
“Everything is based on published and known facts, not on assumptions,” Restrepo explained.
Each question has a lengthy preamble that contains corroborated evidence including pictures, email threads, timelines, interviews, and testimonies. All questions have to do with Pastrana’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell, their meetings, mentions in the list, contradictions in his statements and related matters.
“Asking questions is not incrimination,” she said. “We are saying: If he has nothing to hide, then answer.”
Since the declaration was released, many prominent figures have come to Pastrana’s defense.
Following its publication, Pastrana’s former ministers and others who were part of his administration issued a statement of solidarity with the ex-president: “We know Andrés Pastrana and we worked with him as part of his administration… He is a good man of strong values, respectful of his family and human dignity. His character and his track record do not correspond to being involved in infamous conduct,” the statement said.
The signatories have also faced verbal attacks since the declaration was published, including from public figures. One of the primary sources of the abuse has been the former president’s brother, Juan Carlos Pastrana, with Restrepo saying, “he has been one of the most violent.”
For Restrepo, this reaction highlights the very problem the declaration seeks to redress – that powerful men protect their own.
She also noted that the so-called ‘pact of silence’ extends far beyond Colombia.
“The U.S. Department of Justice releases the Epstein files. In other words, they already knew this information and had it stored… There are files from 2003; there are files that are more than 20 years old,” said Restrepo.
“How do you manage to keep information about a network involved in trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors for more than 20 years if not through a pact of silence? So it is a pact of silence that exists not only in Colombia, but also among elites around the world,” she concluded.
Featured image description: Split image of former President Andres Pastrana and the initial declaration signed by 35 women.
Featured image credit: @AndresPastrana_ via X.
The post Top female journalists demand answers over Colombia ex-president’s Epstein links appeared first on The Bogotá Post.
President Gustavo Petro accused Ecuador on Monday of carrying out bombing raids inside Colombian territory, sharply escalating a diplomatic and trade dispute that has been simmering since January.
Petro said “27 charred bodies” have been found near the border and suggested the attacks could not have been carried out by illegal armed groups, though he presented no evidence to support the claim.
“Ecuador is bombing us, and these are not illegal armed groups,” Petro said during a televised cabinet meeting, warning of a serious breach of sovereignty.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa swiftly rejected the accusation.
“President Petro, your statements are false; we are acting within our own territory,” Noboa said, adding that Ecuadorian forces were targeting “narco-terrorist structures” operating near the border.
Petro said a bomb believed to have been dropped from an aircraft had been discovered near the frontier, reinforcing what he described as a pattern of cross-border strikes.
“A bomb has appeared, dropped from a plane… very close to the border with Ecuador,” Petro said. “We must investigate thoroughly, but this supports my suspicion that Ecuador is bombing us.”
He added that “many explosions” had been reported and said his government would soon release an audio recording allegedly originating from Ecuador.
In a post on social media platform X, Petro said the bombings did not appear to come from Colombian armed forces or illegal groups, which he argued lack the capability to carry out aerial attacks. “The explanation (from Ecuador) is not credible,” he wrote, without specifying when or where the deaths occurred.
Ecuador doubles down
Noboa, facing a surge in organized crime violence at home, has adopted an aggressive military strategy that includes aerial bombardments of suspected cartel camps near the Colombian border.
His government says the operations are conducted strictly within Ecuadorian territory and are often aimed at groups with Colombian origins, including FARC dissidents. “Together with international cooperation, we continue this fight, bombing locations used as hideouts by these groups, many of them Colombian,” Noboa said in a statement.
He also accused Colombia of failing to control its side of the border, allowing criminal organizations to spill into Ecuador.
The latest confrontation comes against the backdrop of a worsening trade dispute that began in January when Ecuador imposed a 30% “security tariff” on Colombian imports, citing Bogotá’s alleged inaction against narcotrafficking.
The tariff was later increased to 50%.
Colombia retaliated with tariffs on 73 products, suspended electricity exports to Ecuador, and imposed restrictions on bilateral trade, deepening tensions between the neighboring countries.
Ecuador responded by raising fees on the transport of Colombian crude through one of its main pipelines.
Despite early attempts to contain the fallout, relations have steadily deteriorated, culminating in the current exchange of accusations.
Risk of escalation
Petro’s latest claims mark the most serious rupture yet, raising the specter of a cross-border military incident between the two countries, which share a long and porous frontier plagued by drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The Colombian president said he had appealed to Donald Trump to intervene diplomatically.“I asked him to act and call the president of Ecuador because we do not want to go to war,” he said.
The involvement of the United States adds another layer of complexity. Ecuador recently deepened security cooperation with Washington, including the establishment of a new FBI office and joint operations targeting organized crime. Earlier this month, Ecuadorian and U.S. forces conducted strikes on a camp linked to the Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident faction of the FARC guerrilla.
The Colombia–Ecuador border has long been a strategic corridor for cocaine trafficking, with armed groups exploiting weak state presence on both sides. While the border itself is not disputed, diverging security strategies have increasingly brought Bogotá and Quito into conflict.
Petro’s government has prioritized negotiations with armed groups under its “Total Peace” policy, while Noboa has pursued a hardline military crackdown.
For now, the allegations from Casa de Nariño remain unverified, but the political damage is done – and one further miscalculation could carry deep consequences far beyond the shared border.
Colombia’s migration authority Migración Colombia denied entry last week to 10 foreign nationals suspected of seeking sex tourism, marking the largest single-day refusal of its kind at Medellín’s main international gateway, officials said.
The individuals — nine from the United States and one from Anguilla — were stopped at José María Córdova International Airport on March 11 after migration officers concluded their travel did not correspond to legitimate tourism.
Authorities said the group arrived on a flight from Miami with a stopover in Panama and voluntarily allowed inspections of their luggage. Officials reported finding sex toys and large quantities of condoms which, along with interview responses, raised suspicions about the purpose of their visit.
In a separate case the same day, the Anguillan national, arriving from the Dominican Republic, told officials he intended to “select women to have sexual relations” in his home country, prompting his immediate inadmission.
The measures form part of a broader government effort to curb human trafficking and sexual exploitation, following directives issued by President Gustavo Petro to strengthen migration controls.
“This is about protecting local communities and preventing Colombia from being used as a destination for illicit activities,” said Gloria Esperanza Arriero, director of Migración Colombia, praising officers in the Antioquia–Chocó regional unit for their rigorous enforcement.
The agency said the refusals were applied as a preventive measure under existing migration law, which grants authorities discretion to deny entry to foreigners who fail to meet requirements or pose risks to public safety or human rights.
The latest cases bring to 26 the number of foreign nationals denied entry in 2026 at the Rionegro airport for suspected links to sexual exploitation. In 2025, authorities recorded 110 such inadmissions nationwide, with roughly 80 occurring at the same terminal, the principal international gateway to Medellín.
Officials say the figures underscore the airport’s strategic importance in detecting early attempts to enter the country for illicit purposes, particularly in a city whose nightlife districts have drawn increasing international scrutiny in recent years.
Migration enforcement has also expanded beyond airports. Authorities reported recent operations in Medellín targeting suspected criminal networks linked to sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and theft in nightlife areas such as Parque Lleras.
In one case, two foreign nationals with criminal records in Venezuela were located in the El Poblado district. One of them, a Venezuelan woman known as “Kata,” had been sentenced to nine years in prison for human trafficking by a court in Caracas. She was expelled after officials confirmed the ruling through Venezuela’s consulate.
Investigators said she had operated in Colombia using falsified documents and was allegedly involved in prostitution networks and drug distribution in Medellín’s nightlife zones, highlighting the challenges authorities face in monitoring transnational criminal activity.
A second suspect, identified as “Gokú,” a dual Colombian-Venezuelan national, was wanted in Venezuela for charges including aggravated robbery, homicide and illegal possession of firearms. Authorities said he posed as a tourist while facilitating theft operations tied to criminal groups.
Separately, migration officials in Bogotá located a French national subject to an Interpol red notice in a hotel near the U.S. Embassy district. The individual was wanted for child abduction and document falsification and was handed over to the relevant authorities following verification of the international warrant.
Migración Colombia said the case was one of nearly 40 alerts recorded so far in 2026 across multiple regions, including Bogotá, Boyacá, Caquetá, Huila and Tolima, involving migration violations and international judicial requests.
The agency added that these operations have led to arrests and more than ten expulsions of foreign nationals this year, underscoring an intensification of enforcement efforts across the country.
In a separate incident underscoring authorities’ concerns, Colombian police arrested a 46-year-old U.S. citizen in Medellín after he was found with a 14-year-old girl in a short-term rental apartment in the El Poblado area, according to local media reports.
The case was triggered by an anonymous tip to the emergency line, prompting officers from the police child protection unit to respond. Authorities said the minor, still in her school uniform, told investigators the man had contacted her through social media to solicit sexual services.
The suspect was detained and faces charges related to the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor under 18, police said. Authorities did not immediately release further details on his identity or legal status.
Officials say the inadmissions at Rionegro reflect a broader trend seen in 2025, when most of the 110 foreigners denied entry over suspected sex tourism were U.S. nationals, reinforcing concerns about the international dimension of the issue.
Authorities say they will continue strengthening coordination with international bodies to prevent Colombia from being used as a destination for sexual exploitation or as a refuge for individuals attempting to evade justice.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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Conservative presidential candidate Paloma Valencia has chosen economist and former statistics chief Juan Daniel Oviedo as her vice-presidential running mate, a move widely interpreted as an effort by the right-wing Centro Democrático to broaden its appeal beyond its traditional conservative base ahead of Colombia’s May 31 presidential election.
The alliance seeks to balance Valencia’s hard-line security message – closely associated with former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez – with Oviedo’s more technocratic and centrist profile, which resonates with younger, urban voters.
Announcing the ticket in the bustling commercial district of San Victorino in central Bogotá, Valencia said the decision followed consultations within the party and with Uribe himself.
“We have reached the conclusion that the best teammate is Juan Daniel Oviedo,” Valencia said. “He obtained a popular backing that excites all of us. He is connecting with many Colombians who did not feel represented.”
The announcement comes just days before the deadline to register presidential tickets with Colombia’s electoral authorities and follows Valencia’s decisive victory in the conservative primary coalition known as “La Gran Consulta,” where she secured more than three million votes. Oviedo finished second with more than one million, quickly emerging as one of the race’s unexpected political figures.
Balancinga new centre
Valencia, a staunch supporter of Uribe’s political project, has repeatedly signaled she will not distance herself from the former president’s ideological influence.
“I’m not going to distance myself from Uribe; I’m going to die a Uribe supporter,” she said in a recent interview with El País, reaffirming her commitment to the security agenda associated with the former two-term president.
Yet her choice of Oviedo indicates an attempt to broaden the coalition’s reach. The economist, who gained national prominence as director of Colombia’s national statistics agency – DANE – is widely viewed as a highly-skilled data-driven analyst with appeal among educated urban voters in their thirties and forties – many of whom supported the Colombian Peace Agreement.
That demographic has traditionally gravitated toward centrist figures such as former Bogotá mayor Claudia López or the moderate political movement associated with Sergio Fajardo.
Oviedo’s presence on the ticket could help the conservative bloc penetrate that electorate while also tempering some of the party’s more polarizing rhetoric.
Beyond Differences
The partnership did not come easily. According to campaign strategists involved in negotiations, several days of discussions were required to reconcile differences between the candidates – particularly regarding Colombia’s peace process.
The Centro Democrático has long been critical of the transitional justice system created by the 2016 accord, especially the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), which has been investigating war crimes committed by ex-FARC and Armed Forces during two decades of the internal conflict.
Oviedo, however, has publicly supported the peace agreement and defended the need for reconciliation. Speaking after accepting the nomination, Oviedo emphasized the importance of political dialogue despite ideological differences.
“This is about listening,” he said. “In this coalition we are capable of recognizing our differences but uniting around a fundamental purpose: looking toward the future and building a country where everyone fits.”
He also highlighted his intention to include diverse sectors of Colombian society, mentioning farmers, informal workers, women and the LGBT community.
Strategic Moves in Gran San
The announcement’s location – San Victorino’s Gran San commercial center, one of Bogotá’s busiest retail hubs- was also symbolic. The district is a bustling marketplace dominated by small traders and informal workers, a constituency both candidates say they want to court.
Valencia described the alliance as a forward-looking project for a country weary of political polarization.
“We have many pains as a nation,” she said during the event. “If we only look backward we will find wounds that still need healing. But we have another option: to look forward toward the future we deserve.”
She also praised Oviedo’s credentials, describing him as a policymaker who understands the deep structural and social challenges facing Colombia. “He likes numbers, he likes studying,” she said. “Government is not about talking nonsense about problems – it’s about understanding them deeply in order to solve them,” she said to waves of applause.
The announcement quickly triggered reactions from across Colombia’s political landscape.
Former Liberal president Ernesto Samper welcomed the decision, arguing that Oviedo’s acceptance of the vice-presidential role signaled an implicit recognition by the right-wing party of the peace process. “The acceptance of Juan Daniel Oviedo demonstrates that the Centro Democrático validates the Havana peace agreement and the continuation of the JEP,” he Samper.
With the campaign entering its decisive phase, the Valencia-Oviedo ticket represents a strategic attempt to unite two currents within Colombia’s conservative electorate: an older security-focused base loyal to Uribe and a younger urban sector seeking pragmatic solutions to the internal conflict.
Whether the combination can bridge Colombia’s ideological divide – or deepen it- will likely shape the tone of the presidential race in the weeks and moths leading to the decisive vote.
Colombia’s high-altitude Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta has become the latest flashpoint in the country’s worsening rural security crisis, after armed clashes between illegal groups left Indigenous communities trapped in the crossfire and triggered a humanitarian evacuation mission.
Authorities confirmed that at least nine wounded civilians, including two minors, were evacuated following heavy fighting between the Clan del Golfo (Gulf Clan) and paramilitary group Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada, which are battling for territorial control in the mountainous region.
The fighting first broke out in the foothills near Aracataca, department of Magdalena, and birthplace of Literature Nobel Laurate Gabriel García Márquez. According to local news sources, several indigenous Arhuaco communities reported being trapped by gunfire, and in some cases, used as human shields during the armed confrontations.
Colombia’s human rights ombudsman, the Defensoría del Pueblo, deployed a humanitarian mission to monitor the deteriorating situation and coordinate assistance with Indigenous authorities, regional officials and the armed forces.
The operation succeeded in evacuating nine injured people who had been confined in areas affected by the fighting. Among the wounded are two children, highlighting the vulnerability of civilian populations in the isolated highlands.
The mission was carried out in the Indigenous community of Gunmaku, where Arhuaco traditional authorities accompanied humanitarian teams in assessing the impact of the violence and assisting those affected.
Officials said both armed groups agreed to temporarily respect a humanitarian corridor, allowing rescue teams to reach the injured and transport them to safety.
Despite the evacuation, the Defensoría warned that the situation remains critical.
Preliminary humanitarian reports indicate the disappearance of two women, the killing of a man, and the injury of a child, while many residents remain confined in their communities due to the ongoing clashes.
“We are deeply concerned about the population in Serankua and nearby rural settlements,” stated the ombudsman’s office, referring to communities located high in the Sierra Nevada where access is extremely difficult.
The entity added that the confrontation had been anticipated in earlier early-warning alerts, but the national government failed to fully prevent the escalation.
Rescue operations have been complicated by the region’s extreme geography.
Much of the affected territory lies more than 2,800 metres above sea level, accessible only by footpaths and rugged mountain trails. Helicopter evacuations carried out by the Colombian Army involved considerable risk due to the altitude and lack of landing zones.
Magdalena governor Margarita Guerra Zúñiga confirmed that the military conducted what she described as a “humanitarian extraction” operation, transporting injured civilians to Santa Marta for treatment.
Several evacuees are receiving medical attention and are in stable condition, except for one child who required emergency surgery.
Indigenous leaders are now warning of forced displacement, similar to the humanitarian crisis last year in the mountainous Catatumbo region, Norte de Santander, close to the Venezuelan border.
Protection agencies, such as the Childrens Welfare Agency (ICBF) are calling on armed groups to respect international humanitarian law, particularly the principles of distinction and precaution, which prohibit attacks against civilians or the use of non-combatants as human shields.
Human rights monitors also called for stronger state presence in the Sierra Nevada, warning that ancestral communities remain highly vulnerable to violence and coercion from criminals.
Security analysts claim the clashes are part of a broader territorial struggle for control of drug trafficking routes that extend from La Guajira to the Uraba Gulf, as well as expanding extortion networks along Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
The Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s largest drugs cartel, has expanded operations across the Caribbean in recent years. The group is now competing for more territorial control with the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada, also known as “Los Pachenca”.
The Sierra Nevada — a vast mountainous ecosystem rising from the Caribbean coast to snow-capped peaks — is the spiritual and ancestral home for the Arhuaco, Kogui, Wiwa and Kankuamo peoples.
Community leaders warn that the expansion of armed groups threatens not only civilian lives but also the ecological and cultural balance of the mountain range, which Indigenous “elders” – mamos – regard as the “Heart of the World”.
Humanitarian agencies have urged Colombia’s government to convene the Intersectoral Commission for Rapid Response to Early Warnings (CIPRAT) and strengthen coordination between the Interior Ministry, regional authorities and the Victims’ Unit.
While more army units are being deployed to the area, Indigenous leaders warn that unless the government of President Petro establishes a permanent security and humanitarian presence, the remote communities inside the world’s highest coastal mountain range will find themselves trapped in a conflict that engulfs not only their ancient territories, but also, one of the country’s most recognized tourism destinations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
The post Election boost for Pacto Historico in Bogotá … appeared first on The Bogotá Post.
Colombia’s presidential race entered a decisive new phase this week after Sunday’s inter-party primaries propelled conservative senator Paloma Valencia into the national spotlight and triggered a scramble among political factions to forge alliances ahead of the May 31 election.
Valencia’s commanding performance in the right-wing “La Gran Consulta” primary – where she secured roughly six million votes – has reshaped the political landscape, opening a contest within the conservative bloc while forcing candidates across the spectrum to recalibrate their strategies.
The vote effectively marks the start of Colombia’s election season, in which presidential hopefuls must broaden their appeal beyond ideological bases while navigating a fragmented political field.
For the right, the central challenge is whether it can attract moderate and centrist voters without alienating the hardline supporters who form the backbone of a political base – and party – associated with former president Álvaro Uribe.
Valencia, a senior figure in Uribe’s Democratic Center, emerged from the primaries as one of the leading conservative contenders after her vote total surpassed the turnout achieved by President Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez in their coalition primaries ahead of the 2022 election.
For Uribe’s movement, which appeared weakened after the presidency of Iván Duque and several electoral setbacks, the result represents an unexpected demonstration of political resilience.
Yet the surge of security-focused Senator has also intensified competition from the far right.
Barranquilla-based lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, who had previously dominated opposition to Petro, now faces a rival capable of consolidating support among traditional party structures while courting voters beyond the hard-right.
De la Espriella announced Tuesday that Ivan Duque’s former finance minister José Manuel Restrepo will join his presidential ticket as vice-presidential candidate, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to add economic credibility to a campaign largely driven by security rhetoric.
Political observers on the night of the consulations emphasized that Uribe will play a decisive role in shaping the outcome of any hard-right and center-right alliance.
The former president remains the most influential figure within Colombia’s right-wing political establishment and will act as “kingmaker” when negotiations begin over a possible understanding between Valencia and De la Espriella aimed at consolidating the anti-Petro vote.
Whether such an agreement materializes remains uncertain, as both candidates seek to position themselves as the principal challenger to the left in the first round scheduled for May 31.
Sunday’s primaries also produced a surprise showing from economist Juan Daniel Oviedo, the former head of Colombia’s national statistics agency (DANE), who secured more than one million votes and finished second in La Gran Consulta.
Oviedo has cultivated support among urban and younger voters, particularly in Bogotá, where his technocratic style and socially liberal positions have resonated with diverse constituencies, including large segments of the LGBTQ community.
Yet his unexpectedly strong performance now places him at a political crossroads.
Oviedo is expected to meet Valencia on Thursday to discuss a possible alliance that could include joining her ticket as a vice-presidential candidate.
Such a partnership could help Valencia reach voters beyond the traditional conservative base. But it also carries risks for Oviedo, whose supporters may question a close association with the Uribe-aligned political establishment that has dominated Colombia’s right for more than two decades.
The two politicians differ sharply on several issues, including the 2016 peace agreement with FARC and role of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the transitional justice tribunal created to prosecute war crimes committed during Colombia’s internal conflict.
While Oviedo has defended Juan Manuel Santos’ peace agreement and role of the tribunal, Valencia has long criticized JEP and promoted reforms aimed at limiting its legal authority.
Despite the shifting dynamics on the right, the left retains an important institutional foothold following Sunday’s legislative elections.
Petro’s governing coalition, the Historic Pact, emerged as the largest force in the Senate with 25 of the chamber’s 102 seats, according to official results, though it fell short of an outright majority and will need alliances with other parties in the fragmented legislature.
Within the progressive camp, however, the primaries exposed clear divisions.
Former Senate president and former Ambassador to London Roy Barreras secured just over 200,000 votes in the left-wing primary and publicly blamed Petro for the weak turnout, accusing the president of discouraging supporters from voting on Sunday to cement the official candidacy of hard-left candidate Iván Cepeda.
The primaries also underscored the continued weakness of Colombia’s political center.
Former Bogotá mayor Claudia López won her coalition’s primary but attracted fewer than half a million votes, a disappointing result that leaves her entering the first round of the presidential race with reduced political momentum.
With nearly three months remaining before the first round of voting, the campaign that begins this week bears little resemblance to the one that existed before Sunday’s primaries.
The conservative opposition remains divided but newly energized, the left retains institutional strength despite internal tensions, and the political center faces an uphill battle to remain relevant.
In a race now expected to be decided in two rounds, Colombia’s presidential contest is once again wide open as candidates maneuver to build alliances and capture the pivotal voters who will ultimately decide the country’s political direction.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 1, 2026
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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