UN Urges Colombia to Speed Peace Deal as Armed Groups Hit 28,000
(MENAFN) The UN urged Colombia on Monday to speed up delivery of its 2016 peace accord, cautioning that slow progress and the growth of illegal armed groups endanger fragile gains in conflict-hit regions.
Miroslav Jenca, special representative and head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, told the UN Security Council that the accord has brought clear benefits but also fallen short. “The agreement has made undeniable contributions to advancing peace in the country ... implementation over the years has also had many shortcomings, and much remains to be done,” he said. He added that “the agreement should be implemented comprehensively.”
Jenca cautioned that the new administration of President Abelardo de la Espriella confronts “mounting insecurity due to the expansion of armed groups and illegal economies,” pointing to government estimates that illegal armed factions have swelled from about 15,000 members in 2021 to 28,000 today. The Gulf Clan alone has more than 10,000 fighters.
On reintegration, Jenca said more than 11,000 former combatants are still moving into civilian life through roughly 6,000 productive projects and 300 cooperatives. Sustainability and security, he said, remain pressing obstacles.
He also flagged the government’s lack of a clear implementation plan. “The government has stated its intention to comply with the constitutional and legal obligations arising from the agreement, however... it has yet to fully outline its approach to implementation,” Jenca said.
Bogota seeks narrower mandate
Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar rejected the international portrayal of the accord, saying the praise it receives as a model “is not borne out in the figures or in the reality that this government inherited.”
Bula cited official tallies for July 2016 through August 2026: 132,930 homicides, nearly 100,000 extortion cases and more than 2,750 abductions. “For our peasant farmers, our workers, our children, and our security forces, peace has simply not existed.”
He said illegal armed groups have multiplied fivefold in a decade, forcing authorities to take on the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Gulf Clan and former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dissident factions at the same time. In the administration’s first 60 days, security forces made more than 32,000 arrests, seized over 135 tons of narcotics and recovered 3,414 firearms.
Against that backdrop, Bula formally proposed narrowing the UN mission’s mandate to security guarantees and the reintegration of former FARC-EP combatants. He argued that comprehensive rural reform is a long-term domestic institutional task that “goes beyond the scope and duration of a special verification mission.”
Miroslav Jenca, special representative and head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, told the UN Security Council that the accord has brought clear benefits but also fallen short. “The agreement has made undeniable contributions to advancing peace in the country ... implementation over the years has also had many shortcomings, and much remains to be done,” he said. He added that “the agreement should be implemented comprehensively.”
Jenca cautioned that the new administration of President Abelardo de la Espriella confronts “mounting insecurity due to the expansion of armed groups and illegal economies,” pointing to government estimates that illegal armed factions have swelled from about 15,000 members in 2021 to 28,000 today. The Gulf Clan alone has more than 10,000 fighters.
On reintegration, Jenca said more than 11,000 former combatants are still moving into civilian life through roughly 6,000 productive projects and 300 cooperatives. Sustainability and security, he said, remain pressing obstacles.
He also flagged the government’s lack of a clear implementation plan. “The government has stated its intention to comply with the constitutional and legal obligations arising from the agreement, however... it has yet to fully outline its approach to implementation,” Jenca said.
Bogota seeks narrower mandate
Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar rejected the international portrayal of the accord, saying the praise it receives as a model “is not borne out in the figures or in the reality that this government inherited.”
Bula cited official tallies for July 2016 through August 2026: 132,930 homicides, nearly 100,000 extortion cases and more than 2,750 abductions. “For our peasant farmers, our workers, our children, and our security forces, peace has simply not existed.”
He said illegal armed groups have multiplied fivefold in a decade, forcing authorities to take on the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Gulf Clan and former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dissident factions at the same time. In the administration’s first 60 days, security forces made more than 32,000 arrests, seized over 135 tons of narcotics and recovered 3,414 firearms.
Against that backdrop, Bula formally proposed narrowing the UN mission’s mandate to security guarantees and the reintegration of former FARC-EP combatants. He argued that comprehensive rural reform is a long-term domestic institutional task that “goes beyond the scope and duration of a special verification mission.”
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