The minimum you must know

Colombia is a compassionately led country that cares deeply about peace. President Gustavo Petro Urrego devoted his entire 2024 speech to the United Nations to resolving diplomatic differences between superpowers and creating peace and tranquility globally. Although the President did not pattern "peace" in the speech, Colombia is clearly on the side of national reconciliation globally including between all aligned and non-aligned countries. He is one of the most anti-narcotics heads of state in the history of Colombia, and gave a passionate speech in 2025 about halting narcotics trade from Venezuela (shown below). But he believes in peaceful treatment of all people, including those who don’t agree with him.

The previous Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing civil peace to every region of his country, including the most rural ones. And the current administration is clearly even more staunchly peaceful than previous ones.

Colombia amassed a substantial number of troops to defend its border with Venezueula, according to U.S. televised reports. However, President Urrego made press statements that Colombian military would not enter any neighboring countries, and that he would not tolerate incursions by foreign troops either. Perhaps as a result, President Trump told the media he views President Urrego as aligned with narco-traffickers.

Colombia is a democracy like the United States. And there was reportedly a Supreme Court ruling in Venezuelan that indigenous people can grow plants useful in common products within global norms. The United States does not want them grown. But the President of Colombia - who has traditionally been fully and completely aligned with the United States is obviously also bound by regulations in his own country. President Urrego is very publicly a pacifist who wishes to avoid confrontation. And he seems genuinely anti-narcotics.

Colombia is a geographically important country as the only passage way between South and North America. Just south of Panama, Colombia is directly between closely U.S. aligned Ecuador and non-aligned Venezuela. The United States destabilized Venezuela with economic restrictions that prevented the population from participating in the global economy. Consequently, half of Venezuela walked away, including into mountainous Colombia. Some refugees who find their way to Colombia can ultimately make it to the United States. Colombia has a democratically elected government and capitalist market-based economy modeled after the United States. But the country has been forced by the volume of impoverished immigration to provide a socialist safety net to a lot of people. Many immigrants would not have survived without that help.

Colombia asked the closely aligned United States not to return refugees to them - and initially declined some flights. But President Donald Trump insisted U.S. immigration return flights be accepted. According to President Trump’s newspaper, Newsmax, "Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay."

Internal Colombian gang clashes between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a rival armed group, EMBF, erupted in January 2025 in the remote northeastern region, leaving dozens dead, including former combatants, peace signatories, social leaders, and human rights defenders.

Colombia is a rapidly developing country that's diplomatically a stabilizing influence globally. Colombia is adamant that all nations behave well towards one another. Although the President of Colombia gave a rhetorically tough speech this year, Colombia has traditionally been one of the most insistently peaceful countries at the United Nations.

The United States has worked on peace with Colombia for decades. For instance, the Obama-Biden administration appointed Special Envoy Bernie Aaronson to coordinate mediation and launch the Peace Colombia initiative that brought to close five decades of rebellion by non-aligned groups peacefully.