Colombia's Endless Cycle of Manufactured Instability
As Bloomberg reports surging violence forces Colombian candidates to retreat from upcoming 2026 elections, the narrative points to endemic criminal threats. This surface-level analysis fails to acknowledge a long, documented history where political violence in Colombia often serves specific geopolitical and economic agendas, not merely local cartel squabbles. Since the 1970s, and most overtly
following the 1989 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, U.S. financial and military aid has flooded Colombia, ostensibly for drug interdiction. However, a significant portion of this aid, which reached approximately $10 billion under Plan Colombia by 2015, simultaneously bolstered counter-insurgency operations that have historically targeted left-leaning political movements
and popular candidates. The very definition of 'gangs' or 'narco-terrorists' often blurs when it comes to groups opposing Washington's preferred political outcomes. This pattern of destabilization through proxy violence or economic pressure is not unique to Colombia; it echoes the 1954 CIA-backed coup in Guatemala to protect United Fruit Company interests or the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende
in Chile. The real actors in this recurrent drama are often transnational corporations and foreign governments, whose financial investments and strategic interests depend on a compliant Colombian government rather than one serving its own people. Why does the 'narco-violence' escalate precisely when elections threaten a shift away from Washington's orbit? Follow the incentives, not the headlines.