Edilma Martinez Flores fled the outskirts of Cali after armed criminal groups handed out leaflets ordering residents to leave or face violence. Her flight now sits inside the Colombia election debate, where insecurity is shaping what voters say matters most on Sunday.
Martinez Flores said her brother was murdered for not paying an extortion payment in front of his children. She also said, “We had no choice but to leave our things behind. They started placing bombs along the routes people travel.”
Iván Cepeda and Gustavo Petro
Iván Cepeda, the left-wing senator and presidential candidate, is seen as the architect of Gustavo Petro's “total peace” strategy. Cepeda has pledged “social transformations that the country urgently cries out for,” and has said he would “take stock” of the peace strategy and “make the necessary changes.”
Cepeda’s position comes after Colombia has lived through six decades of conflict involving armed groups, the state and cartels. Illegal armed groups have roughly doubled their membership in the last five years, while FARC dissident factions, the ELN and the Clan del Golfo have expanded their control of rural areas key to drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Abelardo de la Espriella and El Tigre
Abelardo de la Espriella, who calls himself El Tigre and has been endorsed by Donald Trump, is running on a very different answer to the violence. De la Espriella, a US citizen, has promised 10 mega-prisons, a tough military crackdown and an end to negotiations with armed groups.
De la Espriella said he has “the balls” to take armed groups on and promised that “Any criminal who does not surrender will be taken down.” His campaign has turned the election into a choice between negotiation and force, with armed-group violence at the center.
Bogotá displacement figures
Isabelita Mercado Pineda, a government advisor for peace, victims and reconciliation in Bogotá, said forced displacement rose 300% between 2024 and 2025. She said, “We have not seen displacements like this for the last two decades,” as the campaign has been marked by the assassination of a presidential candidate, homicides, kidnappings and bombings.
The next test is Sunday’s vote, with the candidates offering competing answers to the same pressure point: whether Colombia should keep trying to negotiate with armed groups or turn to a harder security line. For displaced families like Martinez Flores, the campaign’s promises are already being measured against the roads they had to abandon.
