Acuerdate de la Verdad (Remember the Truth)[1], May 13, 2026
translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN volunteer translator
So far in 2026, there has been at least one massacre a week in some corner of the country. The Truth Commission has documented the way these crimes are used as a form of social control, and also simply to provoke terror among the communities.
Colombia is passing through a critical moment in security in the countryside. According to Indepaz[2] statistics up to May 10, in 2026 there have been 52 massacres in this country, the highest figure in the last decade. The increase in these crimes means, fundamentally, that the armed groups are trying to establish or consolidate their control of the communities and the territories through fear.
The Truth Commission, in its final report, described it clearly: the massacres demonstrate that violence in Colombia has no limit, and they have never been random or isolated. When an armed group decides to kill several people at the same time and place, that is done to provoke terror and to paralyze any attempt at community or social resistance.
For decades, the massacres have been used as a means of social control or to empty out the territory. The Commission documented how, using these crimes, the armed actors have forced the people to flee and leave the countryside free for the illegal economies like drug trafficking or mining. The paramilitaries, in particular, used that as a way of imposing a social order where the armed group can establish itself as the authority that “cleans up” the area of persons they consider “undesirable”, bothersome social leaders, young men that don’t follow the group’s rules, or supposed collaborators with the enemy.
The Commission also emphasized that carrying out the massacres demonstrates their absolute territorial control. When the armed groups dare to commit these crimes in bright daylight in inhabited areas, it’s because they have no fear of being caught, or worse still, because they can count on the disregard or connivance of local government officials.
Historically, massacres like the one in Mapiripán in 1997 demonstrated the way the paramilitaries were expanding thanks to the agreement of sectors of the military to “wipe off the map” anybody they thought were the social basis of the guerrillas. For their part, the FARC also resorted to this method of instilling terror, as in the massacre of La Chinita in 1994, directed against some demobilized EPL[3] and some labor leaders, or in La Gabarra in 2004 where they massacred 34 “raspachines” (coca leaf pickers), accusing them of being paramilitary infiltrators. A recent analysis published by Rutas del Conflicto[4], complements the Commission’s findings when it points out that the massacres in 2026 have different shadings different from those in the ‘90’s. Now we are not seeing a hegemonic dominion like that of the former AUC or the FARC, but rather a breaking up of territories where different small groups and dissidents are disputing over the revenue from drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Departments like Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, Cauca, and Norte de Santander continue to be the epicenter of this tragedy because they function as strategic corridors. In those regions, the ruptures of non-aggression pacts between the armed groups have triggered the skyrocketing and lethal violence. The massacres have turned into a way of “marking” their territory in the face of a rival, turning the lives of the campesinos and the demobilized into currency to be exchanged in their war for control of the drug routes.
The historic peak number of massacres that the country is experiencing in 2026 is the result of Colombia having left territories empty of government since the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016, allowing new actors to recycle the old systems of terror. The Truth Commission’s recommendations are more urgent than ever today. We need an integrated policy of dismantling the criminal organizations; a policy that doesn’t only attack their bosses, but also their networks of economic and political support. Besides that, it’s vital to strengthen judicial independence so that the murder of two and three people is not just seen as a gang “payback”, but as a direct attack on human dignity and on democracy. Colombia cannot continue allowing massacres to be the language that governs its regions.
[1] Online publication of the Colombian Truth Commission, www.comisiondelaverdad.com.
[2] Institute for the Study of Development and Peace, a Colombian NGO.
[3] EPL was a guerrilla group created in 1967.
[4] Pathways of the Conlict, an independent journalism portal.