New Wave of Violence in Colombia Signals Need for New Approach from Colombian Government

On June 10, Colombia experienced a wave of violence in the southwestern part of the country, where in the morning, there were 24 separate violent attacks. Car and motorcycle bombs were detonated, cylinder bombs and explosives launched, and gunfire opened in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca. The violence impacted the city of Cali, urban areas of Cali, Jamundí, Buenaventura, and Palmira, and rural Corinto, Suarez, Caloto, Toribío, El Bordo, Villa Rica, Morales, and Buenos Aires, areas that are home to a high number of Indigenous and Afrodescendant people.

These attacks–attributed to the coordinated actions of the Jaime Martinez, Carlos Patino, and Dagoberto Ramos fronts of the dissident FARC–targeted police installations, municipal offices, and roads, resulting in the deaths of five civilians and two police officers, and the injuries of at least 28 others. 

According to The Association for Investigation and Social Action (NOMADESC), a  human rights organization that operates in the regions affected, these attacks had the “clear intention of highlighting the armed groups’ destabilizing power.” NOMADESC has warned about the rampant insecurity in the region, which has significantly deteriorated in recent years. The group reports that since 2024, 63 social leaders and eight grassroots organizations with whom they work have received death threats. Four were murdered. 

Life for persons living under the control of this armed group is horrifying. The dissidents of the FARC-EP historically do not respect international humanitarian law and frequently use civilian property as shields. In areas where they have a high presence, children and adolescents are forcibly recruited or incentivized to join the ranks due to poverty and lack of opportunities. Sexual violence against women, especially Black, Indigenous, and rural farmers, is also common and has increased in recent years. 

NOMADESC and other human rights organizations are urging the government to activate collective and individual mechanisms—and not to push “express” peace negotiations that do not address the underlying issues needed for a true peace. 

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) strongly condemns this violence and laments the human suffering it leaves behind. We remind the government of Gustavo Petro that part of the reason this region is affected by violence, conflict, displacement, confinement, and humanitarian crises is a persistent failure to implement the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC, to fulfill governmental commitments to the Buenaventura Civic Strike, and to keep promises made after 2021 nationwide political protests. 

We support efforts to construct peace with illegal armed groups, since these ease conditions for communities living under their influence and buy time for urgently needed, more profound reforms like the construction of a democratic, accountable, and impunity-free security sector. We also believe that any peace-building must be accompanied by a security strategy that protects social leaders, civilians, and vulnerable Afro-Colombian and Indigenous peoples.

For too long, Colombian governments have measured the “success” of their security strategies in tons seized, hectares eradicated, chokepoints conquered, and armed-group leaders killed or captured. Petro’s 2022 election held the promise of a new approach, measuring success by reductions in social leaders threatened or killed, reductions in crimes against the civilian population, and increases in the number of people able to prosper in their home communities as they felt protected by a responsive, consultative, law-abiding government. Between January 2016 and June 3, 2025, 644  massacres claiming the lives of 2,354 people (112 identified as minors) have occurred in 31 of Colombia’s departments. This indicates that neither former President Ivan Duque nor President Gustavo Petro’s policies, thus far, have eradicated the violence. 

Realigning with that original promise of a new approach, within the framework of the Peace Accords and other commitments, should be the Petro government’s principal priority in southwest Colombia and elsewhere during the final year of the government