As Colombia elections near, Security Council hears calls for calm

This article is published in association with United Nations.

While hope for peace is alive in Colombia as the country prepares for presidential elections, the Security Council on Tuesday heard that achieving it – and making it last – still requires the full implementation of a peace accord signed almost 10 years ago.

Following decades of conflict, the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP rebel group signed an historic Final Agreement on 24 November 2016. 

The following year, the Council authorised the creation of a UN Verification Mission in Colombia to oversee the accord’s implementation. 

However, the Council narrowed the scope of the Mission’s mandate in October 2025, even as that year saw the attempted assassination – and later passing – of one of Colombia’s presidential candidates. Nevertheless, the country held largely peaceful congressional elections on 8 March 2026.

Stay the course

“It is essential for the country to stay on this trajectory,” emphasised Miroslav Jenča, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in the country.

Now, ahead of presidential elections on 31 May, he called on all concerned to ensure a safe, peaceful environment free of violence and stigmatization. 

And condemning reported threats against presidential candidates, he called on State authorities to guarantee the safety of all participants in the electoral process. 

For its part, the Mission will contribute – as it did during congressional elections – in analysing security risks and coordinating preventive actions.

Further, the Mission has been “fully restructured” to reflect the “refocused” mandate established by resolution 2798 (2025), which he noted includes reintegration of former combatants, security guarantees and comprehensive rural reform. 

On the latter, he pointed to both progress achieved and continued effort needed, while also underlining the importance of this process: “By unlocking viable economic opportunities, it can also provide sustainable alternatives to illicit economies, thereby helping to break the cycle of violence.”

Hard-won gains eroded

He detailed a similar reality with regards to former combatants, where active reintegration is complicated by the “fragile socioeconomic, infrastructural and security conditions in rural areas where many former combatants have settled”. 

He also reported that clashes over territorial control and illicit economies in several rural areas – “the Catatumbo region is a case in point” – are visiting violence and hardship on entire communities.

UNVMC

The UN Verification Mission in Colombia’s key task is to verify the reintegration into society of former FARC-EP members.

“As long as violence, territorial disputes or governance vacuums persist in any part of the country, they risk undermining national stability and eroding the gains made elsewhere,” he underscored. And stressing that the Final Agreement provides a comprehensive roadmap for addressing both the root causes and the consequences of the conflict, he observed: 

“The territories where the Agreement has not been sufficiently implemented are precisely where the most acute problems persist today.”

Transformational opportunity

Speaking for one of those hotspots – the Catatumbo region – Olga Lucia Quintero Sierra, General Coordinator of the Catatumbo Peasant Association, said that honouring the historic agreement is a “real opportunity for transformation” for those living in rural Colombia. 

Its sections are interconnected, and she stressed that “advancing in a partial or fragmented manner weakens its essence”. 

Also underlining the need to listen to communities, she said that, despite a new escalation of violence in Catatumbo, “signs of hope” include social investment, the construction of a new university and land allocation to rural women.

On the latter, she said that 54 women have benefitted from the allocation of 724 hectares of land. “This achievement isn’t just about access to land; it is the possibility of rebuilding our lives,” she emphasised.

No abstract peace

“Peace in our territories is not an abstract concept – it is the real presence of the State” in those areas, she went on to say, which equates to “the possibility of living without fear”. 

Against that backdrop, she urged the Mission to continue verifying the deal and the new Government to assume the commitment to fully implement the accord as a national priority. 

Colombia, she concluded, demonstrates that, “even in scenarios marked by profound differences, dialogue constitutes the most effective path to building peace”.