President Gustavo Petro's ambitious "Total Peace" initiative — launched in 2022 with the goal of simultaneously negotiating peace deals with all of Colombia's armed groups — has largely stalled by early 2026. Understanding what this means for safety in Medellín specifically requires separating national security dynamics from city-level conditions.
The ELN remains Colombia's most active guerrilla organization, with approximately 3,200 fighters. Peace talks were suspended in January 2025 after the ELN launched a devastating offensive in the Catatumbo region (near the Venezuelan border), killing over 100 people and displacing 56,000. Despite signals from ELN commander Pablo Beltrán in late 2025 about openness to resuming talks, no formal negotiations have restarted.
Impact on Medellín: The ELN has historically had a presence in some of Medellín's peripheral comunas but has not carried out major attacks in the city proper in years. The rural conflict does not translate to urban tourist safety risks.
Colombia's largest cartel (9,000 fighters) — which controls drug trafficking routes along the Caribbean coast and Pacific — briefly suspended peace talks in February 2026 after Petro agreed to target the organization's leadership as part of a deal with Donald Trump. Talks resumed on February 17. The Gulf Clan operates primarily in coastal and rural regions, not in Medellín.
Multiple FARC splinter groups that rejected the 2016 peace deal continue operating, primarily in the southwestern Cauca region and along cocaine trafficking corridors. Limited contact with some factions continues through the JEP peace process.
The honest answer: very little, for visitors to Medellín's tourist areas. The armed conflict that Petro's Total Peace strategy was addressing is primarily a rural phenomenon — confined to jungle corridors, coca-growing regions, border areas, and coastal trafficking routes.
Medellín's city-specific security challenges — gang-related crime, petty theft, dating app scams — exist independently of the national peace process and are managed at the municipal level by the Metropolitan Police.
Petro leaves office in August 2026. The incoming government will inherit the armed group landscape and will need to decide whether to continue negotiations, pursue more aggressive military options, or some combination. A right-leaning government might abandon the peace process entirely; a centrist would likely maintain limited talks. Either way, the impact on Medellín's day-to-day security is expected to be minimal.