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Colombia heads to polls amid political violence

Colombia heads to polls amid political violence

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The presidential election held on Sunday pits left‑leaning and right‑leaning candidates against one another, each offering divergent approaches to resolving the decades‑long armed conflict. The contest reflects deep policy divides on how best to achieve lasting peace.

Abelardo De La Espriella
1. Politicians never keep their promises. But we entrepreneurs are true to our word.
Ivan Cepeda
1. I call on all the armed groups to follow the path of peace.
Alvaro Echeverry
1. Even criminal organizations unilaterally declare a ceasefire before the elections so that they can proceed peacefully.
Alejandro Chala
Fundación Paz y Reconciliación
1. The violence now is much more territorially concentrated, largely entrenched in the main areas where illegal economic routes operate … It clearly generates a lot of media noise, but it does not have the national reach it had in the past.
Sandra Borda
Universidad de los Andes
1. He also carries some elements of this new counterculture against political correctness, in the style of [Argentina's president] Javier Milei and Donald Trump.
2. There's also the tropical ingredient. He sings. He dances. He has a colorful personality and that creates a lot of impact through social media.
3. He has gathered a big fortune. He has his own airplane. The way he dresses. The way he's a showoff. People like that sort of thing.
Sergio Guzman
Colombia Risk Analysis
1. As a criminal lawyer, Espriella has long been linked to people prosecuted or extradited by the US and those close ties remain concerning for Washington. So he's not really the ideal candidate for the White House.
2. When he's caught in unscripted moments, that show his machismo, his disdain for opposition, his disdain for journalists, those character flaws will draw people away from his candidacy.
Jorge Rueda
1. That is why I think it is so important that Mateo's case receives attention, and that his death serves to show that there is a part of Colombia still forgotten and that neglect is what keeps the war so intense.
2. I could say something different out of anger, but from the heart I believe Colombia has improved enormously in recent years … such as giving young people better opportunities so they don't join the armed conflict. However, there are some regions that never improved.
3. Here, the war is over micro-trafficking and another over the goldmines.
Gimena Sanchez
Washington Office on Latin America
1. There is a more familiar, establishment right, represented by Valencia, and a far right in the form of de la Espriella, who pitches himself as an outsider.
2. You have polar opposite visions for the country.
3. The leading candidates fall into two camps: continuity with the leftist government of Petro and an approach to security that focuses on negotiations with armed groups, and right-wing candidates who very much want to go back to a hardline security model that Colombia had in the past.
4. This is the first election to be held after the first-ever leftist administration in Colombia's 200-year history.

Colombia heads to polls amid political violence

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