Staff Reports
El Tiempo is sounding an alarm that should wake up every voter who cares about security. The Colombian newspaper reports — citing a dataset from the Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP) — that the country’s illegal armed and narco‑terrorist groups nearly doubled during President Gustavo Petro’s four‑year term. If the numbers are right, fighters rose from about 15,120 at the end of 2022 to roughly 28,802 by July 2026 — a staggering near‑90 percent increase that exposes the failure of the “Total Peace” experiment.
What the report shows
According to El Tiempo’s reading of FIP data, the Clan del Golfo swelled the most, jumping from roughly 4,000 known members to more than 12,000. The ELN and FARC dissident branches also grew, and dozens of smaller bands reappeared or expanded to fight over drug routes and illegal mining. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled the Clan del Golfo a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist last year — the same group apparently getting larger while receiving negotiation offers. To be fair and precise: FIP’s public report showed about 27,000 combatants at the end of 2025, and El Tiempo cites an updated FIP count through mid‑2026. That caveat matters, but the trend is unmistakable: armed groups have grown fast and fought more over turf and money.
Why it grew: failed deals and criminal opportunity
Petro’s Total Peace plan was sold as bold and humane — talk to everyone, make peace, save money. In practice, many of those talks happened while trafficking and illegal mining kept booming. Negotiations never tore up the drug trade’s balance sheets, and when you tell violent gangs they have a seat at the table but don’t take away their power, they expand. Add fragmentation of old guerrilla forces, cross‑border safe havens, and fierce fights over coca corridors, and you have a growth machine. In short: appeasement without enforcement gave criminals breathing room to recruit and rebuild.
Incoming policy: tough talk and real action needed
President‑elect Abelardo de la Espriella has promised a hardline response — revoke Total Peace mechanisms, reactivate arrest warrants, and even order strikes against narco‑guerrilla camps. That blunt approach is exactly what voters who want safety expect after years of soft politics that produced more bodies and more routes for cocaine. Tough talk alone won’t fix Colombia; it must be matched with better intelligence, border cooperation (including with the United States), targeting of money flows, and protection for civilians. But when peace plans look more like peace pauses for criminals, a harder hand is the responsible alternative.
Bottom line
This El Tiempo/FIP alarm should be read as a wake‑up call, not a talking point for either side. The surge of narco‑terrorist groups on Petro’s watch — whether 27,000 or 28,802 fighters — shows that ideological experiments without muscle fail fast when criminals care only about cash and control. Colombia’s next test will be whether law and order can be restored, or whether negotiators will once again trade statements while cartels and guerrillas add new recruits. Voters deserve results, and after this run of lawlessness, they won’t settle for anything less.
