Colombia’s runoff election expected to trigger shift in decades-long armed conflict

AI Summary

Colombia's presidential runoff is expected to impact the ongoing violent armed conflict, with frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella promising a return to military confrontation over peace negotiations. This election marks a potential shift from the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC.

Frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella has vowed to return to full-scale military confrontation with armed groups Colombians go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential runoff expected to trigger to a dramatic shift in the country’s decades-long armed conflict, now at its most violent point since the landmark 2016 peace agreement between the government and most of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Polls show the frontrunner is the Trump-admiring far-right lawyer and millionaire businessman Abelardo de la Espriella, who has vowed to abandon President Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” plan of negotiating the disarmament of all criminal organisations and instead return to full-scale military confrontation with armed groups. Continue reading...