Asocapitaleswhich brings together the main cities of the country, prepared an x-ray of one of the flags of the President Gustavo Petrothe ‘total peace’with which arrest warrants have been issued for different drug lords and illegal armed groups have been allowed, the report concludes, a territorial expansion that has led them to dominate several regions of the country.
Three months before Petro’s term ends, the balance of the association is strongly critical. He warns that there has been no verifiable progress in terms of peace, and that instead the initiative has increased crime in the country with high-impact crimes against humanity.
“The total peace policy does not show consistent results in verifiably containing the expansion of organized armed groups.nor the violent pressure on the territories: in parallel, the strengthening of armed groups, the increase in homicides, extortion and kidnappings is observed,” says the analysis.
Gustavo Petro. Photo:Presidency.
The study called ‘Total Peace and the structural increase in violence in Colombia (2022 – 2026)’ also includes reproaches to the rewards that have been given to 75 criminals with appointments as peace managerswhich has allowed them to mobilize around the country while holding dialogues and rapprochements.
These types of benefits have had an impact, Asocapitales emphasizes, on the governance and security of the cities. A recent example of this is the attack with explosives on the Pichincha battalion in Cali, attributed to the ‘Jaime Martínez’ structure of the ‘Iván Mordisco’ dissidents. That was the first of more than 30 terrorist acts that marked one of the most tragic weekends in recent decades of the country, with the death of 20 people in Cajibío, Cauca.
Cajibio. Photo:JUAN PABLO RUEDA BUSTAMANTE
As of April, the outlook is not the best: there are no signs of will on the part of the illegal groups, the peace processes are frozen and there is no reduction in conflict.
For Andrés Santamaría, director of Asocapitales“what we are seeing in different regions of the country is a clear sign that the ‘total peace’ policy is failing to contain or reduce violence. “Cities are assuming the consequences of a model that is not guaranteeing security in the territory.”
Andrés Santamaría, director of Asocapitales. Photo:Jaiver Nieto Álvarez.
The suspension of arrest warrantsone of them that currently shelters alias Calarcá, was also addressed in the Asocapitales report. According to data from the Prosecutor’s Office compiled by the association, 205 members of armed groups benefited in the Petro government with the lifting of his arrest warrants to be able to move through the territory. Among the groups that received them are the ‘Central General Staff’ and the ‘Blocs and Fronts General Staff’.
Likewise, the x-ray shows crimes against humanity that affect citizens in each region, such as kidnapping and forced displacement. In fact, they affirm that the capitals concentrate nearly 50 percent of the homicides, personal injuries, thefts and extortions that occur in Colombia.
The breaches
The analysis of the association of the 32 capitals of the country used as input databases from official entities, articles from the media and organizations such as Indepaz, the FIP and Pares. From there, they broke down the criminal power of each ringleader.
The first is Néstor Gregorio Vera, alias Iván Mordisco and number one enemy of Colombia. This dissident, for whom they give up to 5,000 million pesos as a reward, grew in recent years from 3,275 to 4,019 armed men and women. With the ceasefire, it expanded its illegal power in eight departments, and would be associated with 237 of the 277 drone attacks in 2025, a modality that increasingly frightens communities.
Alias Iván Mordisco and alias Calarcá. Photo:Private file
Although the Military Forces mounted a ‘hunt’ for him and have captured his brothers, in a couple of operations they have not been able to find him.
The second is Alexander Díaz, alias Calarcaa man who has abused the carrot that the Government gave him with the lifting of arrest warrants. Even though the Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargoasked President Petro a month ago to reactivate the arrest warrants against the dissident for the serious crimes committed, the president has not heeded his call. The power of ‘Calarcá’ went from 1,225 to 2,958 members in its ranks.
The ELN also grew. According to the Pares foundation, it went from 2,541 to 6,450 members, while the ‘Gulf clan’ – another of those that has sat at peace tables – became the largest illegal group in the country with nearly 10,000 armed men who are part of its support networks. The ‘clan’ is present in 296 municipalities in the country, and according to reports its monthly ‘criminal payroll’ is 1.5 million dollars.
Finally, the ‘Second Marquetalia’ by alias Iván Márquezresponsible for the assassination of Miguel Uribe Turbay, took advantage of his interference on the border with Venezuela to go from 1,663 to 2,000 people.
Alias Iván Márquez. Photo:video capture
The x-ray
The Asocapitales report takes an x-ray of ‘total peace’ and takes as a reference point the agreement between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the extinct FARC guerrilla. That negotiation had gaps that during the administrations of Iván Duque and Gustavo Petro have been taken advantage of by other groups such as eln.
To fill these gaps, in 2022 Petro came to power and promoted his peace policy in Congress, made official with the Law 2272 of 2022which with difficulty passed its examination at the Constitutional Court.
Despite the approval of the law, for Asocapitales the reality was that good intentions did not translate into concrete results: “No dialogue process included effective dismantlement commitmentsturning ‘total peace’ into an instrument that, in practice, granted legal benefits without requiring real compensation in terms of security.”
Total Peace Law. Photo:Mini interior
One of the rewards were the ceasefires which were granted to different factions, who took advantage by expanding their corridors for drug trafficking and illegal mining.
On the other hand, the report includes criticism of gang subjugation that never came to fruition. Under a justice reform proposal, the Government wanted to include benefits that aroused controversy because it was going to model the ‘Justice and Peace’ model of a maximum of eight years in prison.
An equally bitter result is seen in the analysis of the association with the figures of serious crimes. In homicides, the Ministry of Defense itself counted 14,038 cases in 2025, making it the most violent year in the last decade.
In extortion, 13,417 cases make last year record unprecedented figures -except for those of 2024-. “The IFJ warns that In areas of armed influence, unreported extortion far exceeds official records“said the association. Similar alarms are seen when reviewing the 701 kidnappings and 88,100 forced displacements last year.
Public force in Catatumbo. Photo:Courtesy
serious consequences
This criminal expansion of illegal groups is aggravated by the low police presence that accompanies the mayors in their mission to protect the civilian population. In Bogotá there are between 206 and 210 uniformed officers per 100,000 inhabitants, when there should be 300 if international standards are to be followed.
This reduction in institutional presence on the streets has been reflected in insecurity, which even mayors have suffered. Between January 2024 and April of this year, Asocapitales reported that 11 leaders – among them those of Bogotá, Medellín and Cali – received direct threats or alerts of attackswhich have been analyzed by the Ministry of Defense and the National Protection Unit (UNP).
Carlos López – @CarlosL49 – carben@eltiempo.com
