The map of violence isn't uniform: ten departments cut homicide
Putumayo, Guainía, and Córdoba lead the list of departments that most reduced their homicide rate between 2021 and 2025, through territorial strategies that go beyond the military.
While the national homicide rate stayed relatively stable, the picture by department tells a different story. Comparing 2021 to 2025, the largest drops were recorded in Putumayo (-59%), Guainía (-58.5%), Córdoba (-50%), Nariño (-49%), Arauca (-37%), Amazonas (-37%), and Chocó (-35%). Among capital cities, the most notable case is the city of Arauca, with a 77% drop, followed by Puerto Inírida (-41%), Montería (-39%), and Leticia (-38%).
Guainía's case is the most striking in terms of continuity: the department reached 234 consecutive days without a single homicide. These results show that reducing violence is possible when territorial pressure is sustained over time.
Nationally, 429 municipalities recorded zero homicides in 2026, and 718 fell below the national rate, compared to 385 that were above it. 78% of homicides were committed with a firearm.
That territorial pressure, in our strategy, isn't limited to military action. We combine it in a ratio of 70% unified State action (social investment, institutional presence, substitution of illegal economies) with 30% direct Public Force action. That's the logic behind territorial commitments such as the Cauca Pact, the Catatumbo Pact, and the Nariño Pact, designed to sustain over time results that military pressure alone cannot guarantee.
The challenge remains extending that same result to the parts of the country where armed conflict persists with greater intensity. We recognize that Catatumbo, in particular, remains one of the hardest-hit regions: the displacement of more than 30,000 people, the confinement of another 60,000, and the killing of more than 200 rural residents by a drug-trafficking cartel are an outstanding debt that shouldn't be minimized against the progress made elsewhere in the country.
