Can Petro Pull Off ‘Total Peace’ in Colombia?
Negotiating with all armed groups is a high-stakes gamble with consequences far beyond the country's borders.
Gustavo Petro might be only six weeks into his presidency, but he hasn’t lost any time defining his top priority. “I will work to achieve true and definitive peace. Like no one else, like never before,” he pledged at his August 8 inauguration. Petro’s agenda, which he has dubbed “total peace,” is nothing if not ambitious. He proposes simultaneous talks with the National Liberal Army (ELN), FARC splinter groups and over two dozen other mafias—all with the goal of ending Colombia’s epidemic of violence once and for all. If the promises sound big, that’s exactly why many...
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