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Homicides in Colombia are at their highest level in a decade, and armed groups have grown by nearly a quarter in a single year. Mayors and governors sit closest to this crisis, yet Colombia’s institutional structure remains centralized, leaving authority and resources concentrated at the national level. Local leaders are left to confront rising violence with little control over the institutions meant to respond.
On April 27, 2026, the Inter-American Dialogue’s Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program and Hemispheric Security Initiative hosted “Subnational Approaches to Security in Colombia” in Bogotá, in partnership with Asocapitales, Portafolio, and El Tiempo. The conference brought together mayors, governors, and security practitioners, along with civil society and private-sector leaders, to examine the role of subnational governments in Colombia’s security crisis.
The conference surfaced four recurring challenges facing local leaders: coordination with the national government that remains episodic, detention facilities that strengthen criminal networks rather than disrupt them, a justice system in which arrests rarely produce consequences, and prevention programs that remain underfunded despite evidence of what works.
The incoming administration will face these trends directly, and local governments will be central to any response. This report points to ways to strengthen Colombia’s security response and empower the local leaders who are already confronting this crisis directly.
