Disinformation also puts those in uniform at risk
he most repeated falsehood about Colombia's security forces — that they shrank — is contradicted by the official series. But the problem does not end with the data: media violence against soldiers and police officers reaches the street, and reaches families.
In the country's security threat assessment, disinformation appears alongside drug trafficking, illegal mining and terrorism. It is neither a rhetorical flourish nor a complaint about the press: it is recognition that part of the contest for territorial control is now fought on the terrain of information.
The clearest case
The most widely circulated claim about Colombia's security forces in recent years is that they shrank. The official force-strength series refutes it unambiguously: 375,033 personnel in 2022, 415,007 in 2026, growth of 10.6% equivalent to close to forty thousand people, after two consecutive periods of decline — 4.3% between 2014 and 2018, and 11% between 2018 and 2022.
This is not a matter of interpretation. It is a statistical series, published, verifiable and comparable year by year.
Why it matters beyond the data
Disinformation about the security forces has a concrete operational effect: it erodes the public trust on which the flow of information, reporting and cooperation in the territories depends. A discredited institution operates with less information, and an institution with less information makes more mistakes, which in turn feeds the discredit.
It also has an effect on people. Media violence against soldiers and police officers does not stay in public debate: it legitimises hostility towards those in uniform and, by extension, towards their families. The institutional position on this has been to inform promptly and to report offences against honour and dignity when they are committed.
