Colombia holds presidential election amid rising political violence

Colombia's presidential election on Sunday (June 1) is a close race between left- and right-wing candidates, with opposing proposals on how to resolve the country's decades-long internal armed conflict. The election comes amid rising political violence, at its highest level in a decade.

One recent victim of the violence is Mateo Pérez Rueda, 24, a political science student and reporter for the independent digital magazine El Confidente. On May 4, he traveled to Briceño, Antioquia province, to cover the long-running conflict between the military, paramilitary forces, and dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The next day, he lost contact with his family. After a three-day search, his body was found; he had been kidnapped, tortured, and killed by a Farc dissident group (the 36th Front).

Rueda's story symbolizes the wave of escalating political violence that has become a central issue in the election. The decades-long armed conflict in Colombia has claimed nearly half a million lives.

President Gustavo Petro, who cannot run for re-election under the constitution, has endorsed left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda, 63, who leads in the polls. Cepeda is seen as the architect of the government's 'total peace' plan, aimed at signing disarmament agreements with all criminal groups. Many security experts consider the plan a failure, as armed groups have exploited temporary ceasefires to expand, but Cepeda remains committed to pursuing it.

His main opponents are far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, 47, and right-wing Senator Paloma Valencia, 48. They promise to return to an all-out war upon taking office. During the campaign, guerrilla attacks, killings, kidnappings, forced displacements, and massacres have increased.

The violence serves as a reminder that the historic 2016 peace deal between the government and most of the Farc, while significantly reducing violence for years, did not end it entirely. Subsequent administrations have implemented the agreement slowly, while some Farc factions and other rebel groups refused to sign and have grown stronger.

Jorge Rueda, the victim's cousin, said: 'In Antioquia, the war never ended. The war now is about drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.' On Monday (May 26) alone, more than 50 people, including many children and teenagers forced into recruitment, died in clashes between two Farc dissident groups.

However, Alejandro Chala, a researcher at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, argues that violence is now more territorially concentrated, mainly in areas with illegal economies. The homicide rate is now about 26 per 100,000 people, down sharply from a peak of 80 per 100,000 before the peace deal. 'It generates more media buzz, but it doesn't have the national impact it once did,' he said.

While Valencia advocates a 'total security' approach under former President Álvaro Uribe, whose tenure was marred by scandals involving 'false positives' (killing civilians and staging them as rebel casualties), Espriella embraces an El Salvador-style 'tough-on-crime' stance. Espriella, a criminal lawyer and millionaire businessman, admires Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele. He promises to build ten 'super-maximum security prisons.' However, Trump has not endorsed Espriella, possibly because he once served as a lawyer for Álex Saab, considered financier of Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela.

Sandra Borda Guzmán, associate professor of political science at the University of los Andes, suggests Washington may avoid intervening because past interventions often backfired. 'Mr. Trump's attacks on President Petro, calling him a 'drug trafficker,' ended up increasing Petro's popularity,' she noted.

Currently, Iván Cepeda leads in the polls, with Valencia in second place, but Espriella is gaining ground. If no candidate wins more than half the votes, a second round will be held on June 21. Despite losing his nephew, Jorge Rueda believes Colombia is progressing. 'I could say something different out of anger, but from my heart I believe Colombia has improved a lot in recent years, offering better opportunities for young people so they don't join the armed conflict. However, there are still regions that have never improved,' he said.