The implementation of the 2016 Peace Deal signed by the Colombian state and the now-defunct FARC returned to the center of international debate Monday at the United Nations Security Council.
During the session, held in New York, the UN warned about the security challenges that persist in the country and urged the government of President Abelardo de la Espriella to ensure the continuity of its peace commitments, as the expansion of armed groups and attacks on vulnerable communities threaten the progress made over the past decade.
Foreign Minister Omar Bula’s remarks outlined the new administration’s position on the international monitoring mechanism. The minister argued that security is an indispensable condition for lasting peace and proposed removing the Comprehensive Rural Reform from the UN Verification Mission’s mandate.
The proposal opens a debate over the process’s priorities: while the government demands tangible results in the fight against violence, the United Nations insists that fully implementing the agreement remains essential to addressing the root causes of the conflict.
The United Nations, for its part, urged the De la Espriella government to “ensure the continuity of the Peace Agreement amid rising violence.”
Colombia seeks to remove rural reform from UN Peace Deal monitoring
Presenting the quarterly report on Colombia, Miroslav Jenca, the special representative of the secretary-general and head of the United Nations Verification Mission, focused on the risks facing the peace process during the political transition. The organization’s message to the new government is clear: preserve the commitments undertaken by the state and prevent deteriorating security conditions from reversing the progress made since 2016.
The figures compiled by the United Nations illustrate the scale of the challenge. Between June 27 and August 30, approximately 5,600 people were displaced, while another 4,400 were confined to their communities in 15 municipalities across seven departments. In addition, the mission verified the killings of eight former FARC members during the period under review, six of them in August. So far in 2026, the organization has verified the killings of 13 former combatants.
Violence continues to affect social leaders and human rights defenders as well. These attacks, together with the recruitment of minors and the territorial expansion of armed organizations, demonstrate that signing a peace agreement is not enough to transform living conditions in regions historically affected by the conflict.
For the UN, maintaining the process does not mean ignoring its shortcomings, but rather preventing unresolved issues from ultimately undermining its achievements. Implementation must translate into effective protection, economic opportunities and a state presence capable of challenging armed groups for control of their territories.
Government calls for review of Verification Mission’s mandate
In his first address to the Security Council, Bula argued that security is not incompatible with peace but rather a prerequisite for achieving it. The minister defended the government’s right to assess the agreement’s results and described a situation marked, according to the figures he presented, by the growth of criminal organizations, the strengthening of illicit economies and an increase in the recruitment of minors.
“President Abelardo De La Espriella’s government was elected with the highest vote total in Colombia’s history, amid widespread and verifiable discontent with a peace that, for working and honest people, never existed,” Bula said, seeking to demonstrate the legitimacy of the government’s policies, even though De la Espriella’s candidacy prevailed by less than 1%.
Nevertheless, the minister questioned why peace had failed to materialize for many Colombians a decade after the agreement was signed. In this context, he announced that the administration wants to focus the Verification Mission’s work on the reintegration of former combatants and security guarantees, leaving Comprehensive Rural Reform under the direct responsibility of national institutions.
Bula argued that rural reform is a structural public policy that must become a permanent part of state governance. At the same time, he assured the council that Colombia would uphold its commitments under the Final Peace Agreement and respect the Security Council’s authority to decide on the mission’s mandate.
Rural reform at the center of disagreements
Colombia’s proposal raises an important debate over the scope of international oversight. Comprehensive Rural Reform is one of the pillars of the 2016 agreement, designed to address rural inequality, land concentration and the state’s historical absence from numerous rural areas. Its implementation is closely linked to the conditions that allowed the armed conflict to persist.
Removing this component from UN verification could strengthen the responsibility of Colombian institutions, as the government argues, but it could also reduce international scrutiny of one of the most difficult structural transformations to achieve. The question is not simply who oversees the reform, but what guarantees will ensure that commitments produce tangible results for rural communities.
Bula’s position reflects a shift in emphasis toward security and the restoration of territorial control. However, neither objective is likely to be achieved sustainably without accompanying social and economic progress in the most vulnerable regions.
“Peace must be reflected in Colombians’ daily lives: when families live without fear, farmers work freely and no illegal organization replaces the country’s legitimate authority. That is the peace Colombia is determined to build,” the country’s top diplomat concluded.
Rural reform, one of the pillars of the Peace Agreement, made progress under Gustavo Petro’s government (2022–2026), although it fell far short of meeting its main land redistribution targets.
At the end of his term, the National Land Agency reported that nearly 382,000 hectares had been transferred to farming families and ethnic communities, while more than 2.4 million hectares were formally titled to provide landowners with legal certainty. In addition, 831,323 hectares were added to the Land Fund, a mechanism designed to facilitate access to rural property.
However, progress was uneven. The target of distributing 1.5 million hectares was not met, despite political momentum and public investment. Land titling advanced more than actual redistribution, while structural obstacles persisted, including land ownership concentration, rural violence, and difficulties in ensuring comprehensive access to land.
A commitment that transcends any government
Monday’s statements revealed differences in approach but also a fundamental point of agreement: Colombia needs to restore security and prevent violence from continuing to undermine hopes for peace.
The government is right to demand results in confronting criminal organizations; the United Nations, for its part, warns that those results cannot be separated from compliance with the commitments intended to transform the conditions that fuel the conflict.
For the international community, the main challenge will be determining whether the new security strategy can move forward without weakening the agreement’s social components.
Ten years after it was signed, peace in Colombia remains an unfinished process whose continuity depends both on the state’s ability to protect the population and on its willingness to fulfill its commitments.
The UN’s warning to the new administration goes beyond a diplomatic recommendation: the 2016 agreement is a commitment of the Colombian state, not of any particular administration. The coming months, with consequential decisions ahead on the agreement’s implementation, will determine the De la Espriella government’s commitment to an agreement that is binding on the state under Colombian law.
Hoy 12/Octubre, @JencaMiroslav, Representante Especial del Secretario General y Jefe de @MisionONUCol, presentará el reciente Informe sobre la #MisiónDeVerificación al #UNSC
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9 a.m. hora
Sigue #EnVivo
https://t.co/HssCjzdqAt— Misión de la ONU en Colombia (@MisionONUCol) October 12, 2026
