Fear and Violence Overshadow Colombia’s Presidential Election as Drone Attacks Spread Across Rural Communities

BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA

As Colombia prepares to elect a new president and vice president on May 31, fear and uncertainty have settled over many rural communities where escalating violence and increasingly sophisticated attacks by armed groups are shaping daily life and threatening voter participation.

In the small southwestern village of Potrerito, resident Gladys Marín lives only a few steps from the local school where polling stations are scheduled to open on election day. Yet despite the convenience, she remains uncertain whether she will cast her vote, fearing that the ongoing violence surrounding her community may make even a short walk too dangerous.

Marín’s home sits less than 100 meters from the town’s police station, a facility that has repeatedly come under attack from explosives dropped by drones. Authorities say the strikes are being carried out by dissident rebel factions that rejected the historic peace accord signed between the Colombian government and guerrilla groups nearly a decade ago.

Speaking from the porch of her modest home in the town located roughly 470 kilometers southwest of Bogotá, Marín described the anxiety that has become part of everyday existence.

“You have to stay alert to what is happening, because we live very close to the police station,” she said, glancing toward the heavily guarded compound nearby.

The upcoming election has increasingly become a defining political moment for President Gustavo Petro and his controversial “total peace” policy, an ambitious initiative aimed at negotiating with Colombia’s remaining armed organizations and ending one of the world’s longest-running internal conflicts.

However, many Colombians now view the election as a referendum on whether that strategy has succeeded or failed.

Violence linked to armed groups has intensified in several regions since Petro took office, according to security analysts, local officials and independent monitoring organizations. The Electoral Observation Mission reported that 386 municipalities — roughly one-third of Colombia’s territory — are currently vulnerable to violence connected to illegal armed organizations. Meanwhile, the Ideas for Peace Foundation estimates that approximately 27,000 armed fighters remain active across the country.

Nowhere is the fear more visible than in towns surrounding Jamundi in Valle del Cauca province, where drone warfare has dramatically altered the nature of the conflict.

In the neighboring town of Robles, streets near the police station have been blocked with makeshift barricades as officers remain entrenched behind sandbags and protective barriers, scanning the skies for approaching drones capable of carrying explosives.

Residents say the constant threat has transformed ordinary routines into moments of tension.

“You pass by the police station with this sense of dread, looking up, hoping you won’t run into a nasty surprise,” said Eucaris Zamora, whose home was partially destroyed last October after a cylinder bomb struck the property.

The attack forced her family to abandon the house, adding to the growing number of civilians displaced by the escalating violence.

Regional security officials say rebel groups have rapidly adapted their tactics in recent months, turning commercial drones into deadly weapons capable of targeting both security forces and civilian infrastructure.

Guillermo Londoño, a security official in Valle del Cauca, said armed groups are now carrying out coordinated “swarm-style” attacks involving multiple drones launched simultaneously, a major evolution from earlier methods where militants typically relied on a single device at a time.

The spread of explosive-laden drones since 2024 has significantly shifted Colombia’s security landscape. Analysts describe the technology as one of the greatest emerging threats facing both civilians and the military, particularly in border areas near Venezuela, in northern Bolívar province and along the Pacific coast in southwestern Colombia.

Government figures illustrate the scale of the escalation. Colombia’s Defense Ministry reported that drone attacks struck 333 targets in 2025, a dramatic increase from the 61 incidents recorded the previous year. The Colombian army has separately documented 107 direct drone attacks against military personnel this year alone, resulting in the deaths of at least two soldiers.

For many communities, the violence has fueled growing skepticism toward Petro’s “total peace” initiative.

The policy was originally introduced as a broad effort to negotiate ceasefires and disarmament agreements with guerrilla organizations, drug trafficking groups and criminal networks operating across Colombia. But critics argue the strategy has allowed some groups to strengthen their territorial control while negotiations stalled.

Petro himself has acknowledged that the initiative has not produced the results his administration had hoped for. Although his government has suspended negotiations with some armed factions because of continued violence, talks remain open with other organizations.

The election campaign has exposed a deep divide among presidential candidates over how Colombia should confront the worsening security crisis.

Candidates aligned with Petro’s political movement, including Senator Iván Cepeda, support continuing negotiations with armed groups in pursuit of eventual peace settlements. Opponents, however, are calling for a far more aggressive military response.

Among them are Senator Paloma Valencia of the opposition Democratic Center party and Abelardo de la Espriella, a hard-line candidate who openly admires Salvadoran President and has promised an uncompromising crackdown on illegal armed organizations.

Security experts warn that either path could carry significant risks.

Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said tougher military measures may provoke increasingly violent retaliation from armed groups that lack the capacity to confront the Colombian military directly in conventional combat.

“Right-wing candidates propose a hard-line response that could exacerbate the violence, because the armed groups will respond to pressure from security forces with terror-style attacks,” Dickinson explained.

Communities across southern Colombia have already witnessed the devastating impact such attacks can have.

In December, gunmen launched a major assault on the police station in the southern town of Buenos Aires, injuring several officers and leaving surrounding buildings in ruins. The explosion destroyed a local bank and damaged nearby homes, sending shockwaves through the community.

One of the homes reduced to rubble belonged to 89-year-old resident Celimo Enrique Aguilar.

Standing among the remains of his property, Aguilar reflected on decades of conflict that have shaped life in rural Colombia.

“I haven’t lost faith that, someday, one might be able to live in peace,” he said.