Colombia asked the United Nations Security Council on Monday, 12 October, to remove rural reform from the mandate of the UN mission monitoring the country's peace deal with the FARC. The request would shift international oversight away from land policy affecting poor farming regions and toward security work defined by state institutions. The mission's mandate expires on 31 October 2026; 17 days remained as of October 14.
Who Controls the Mandate
Foreign Minister Omar Bula said the mission should continue, but focus on reintegrating former FARC fighters and the security guarantees promised by the agreement. At his first Security Council session as foreign minister, he called rural reform a structural public policy that should become a permanent part of Colombia's own institutions. The land chapter promises land, roads and services for poor farming regions. The Council added it to the mission's duties in 2023.
Bula told the 15-member Council, "Our commitment remains intact." He also said the final decision belonged to the Council and that Colombia wasn't seeking to change any resolution unilaterally. Colombia holds one of the Council's 10 elected seats for 2026 and 2027, while the United States is one of five permanent members with veto power. States with unequal authority control the vote on the land question.
If the Council approves the request, the mission would provide less international oversight of Colombia's land policy and focus more on security. Bula said the Agriculture Ministry had legal tools to continue land policy, but named no outside body to monitor it. In August, Agriculture Minister Indalecio Dangond announced a 90-day pause on land handovers and titling for review.
Land, Security and the Cost Below
Bula cited 132,930 people murdered in Colombia between July 2016 and August 2026. He also cited nearly 100,000 extortion cases and more than 2,750 kidnappings, and said armed groups had grown from about 6,000 to almost 30,000 members since the peace deal. Coca, the plant used to make cocaine, covered about 253,000 hectares in 2023, roughly 980 square miles.
Miroslav Jenča, the UN Secretary-General's special representative who leads the mission, cited government data given to Colombia's Congress showing illegal armed groups grew from about 15,000 members in 2022 to roughly 28,000. He said 501 former FARC fighters had died since 2016; the latest cited death came on 22 September in the northern province of Cesar. Jenča also condemned the 1 September killing of two community leaders in Cauca, in the southwest.
The UN Verification Mission in Colombia began work in 2017 to check implementation of the peace deal. Jenča said it operates 29 offices across the country. More than 11,000 former FARC members remain in reintegration; they've started about 6,000 productive projects and 300 cooperatives, with work ranging from coffee to tourism. Jença said rural reform aims to improve services, jobs and local institutions, and that development plans monitored by the mission help extend the state into conflict zones. The cooperatives and projects are concrete forms of collective activity. The article gives no direct testimony from their members.
A Council Vote, Not a Community Decision
U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bartos, the U.S. representative for UN management and reform, welcomed "Colombia's determination to take ownership of rural reform." He said the mission should retain its core verification work and field presence, adding that the Council should "focus on core mandates, and deliver results rather than perpetuate missions indefinitely." During the 2025 renewal, the United States had insisted on removing two tasks: the peace deal's chapter on ethnic communities and sentences from its special peace court.
Bartos also praised President Abelardo De la Espriella for ending peace talks with armed groups inherited from his left-wing predecessor, Gustavo Petro. He said the United States had sent more than US$26.5 million in aid after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Colombia on 10 August, and that Washington looked forward to a deeper security partnership against groups that had preyed on "Colombians and Americans alike." Bula cited 119 extraditions signed by the president as cooperation against transnational drug trafficking.
Britain, which drafts the Council's texts on Colombia, was preparing a resolution and already talking to Colombia, El Tiempo reported. In 2025, most other Council members wanted to retain the two tasks the United States had removed, according to Security Council Report, a New York research group. A new resolution requires nine of the Council's 15 votes and no veto. The mission monitors the peace deal; it isn't a security force. Whether land policy stays under international scrutiny now rests with the Council, not the farming communities whose regions the chapter is meant to serve.