Colombia's Peace Deal Left a Power Vacuum Dissident Groups Filled

Colombia's June 2026 runoff comes as dissident armed factions control coca cultivation and trafficking networks in territories the FARC-EP abandoned after the 2016 accords. The demobilization dismantled the guerrilla but not the economic ecosystems it managed, allowing splinter groups and the ELN to expand. The next president inherits a landscape where formal peace failed to consolidate state control over key provinces—a structural gap that has fueled persistent violence in rural regions.