Escalation of Violence amidst Colombia’s Struggle for Peace

In Jan­uary 2025, violent clashes bet­ween compet­ing armed groups in the re­gion of Cata­tumbo led to one of the worst humani­tarian crises in Colombia’s recent his­tory, which left at least 55 civilians dead and more than 50,000 people forcib­ly displaced. Despite the decla­ration of a natio­nal emer­gency and the deploy­ment of the mili­tary by the govern­ment of Gustavo Petro, the situa­tion re­mains tense. In this TraCe Policy Brief, we identify key cau­ses behind the most recent esca­lation of vio­lence and discuss impli­cations for on­going and future attempts at building peace in Colom­bia.