These are the news that defined the political panorama in Colombia in 2024:
Water crisis in Bogotá
In April, the Bogotá Mayor’s Office announced measures to water rationing due to the low levels of the reservoirs, which reached historic lows due to the prolonged drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon.
This situation forced the city’s inhabitants to adapt to supply restrictions of water, in what is considered the most severe water crisis in the last 40 years.
Since then, scheduled cuts have been applied by sectors for 24 hours to avoid “day zero”when the reservoirs are below 36% of their capacity.
Currently, the reservoirs have managed to exceed 50% of their capacity, but the Mayor’s Office has stated that the restrictions will remain in place until they reach 70% of the volume, a figure they consider to be the minimum to lift rationing.
What has happened to the “total peace” policy?
The “total peace” of President Gustavo Petro, with which he seeks to put an end to the internal armed conflict that has persisted in the country for decades, is beginning to generate multiple doubts about the dialogue processes with the different groups that have been accused of not having a will real to reach agreements.
Although the government has held meetings with the ELN guerrillas, the dialogue process has remained frozen since September, when the rebels launched an attack against a group of soldiers.
The dialogue table remains frozen, the guerrilla has maintained that its “intention” in the current peace process is to leave it “as consolidated as possible” in 2026 and continue it with a new government.
In parallel, the internal division of the FARC dissidents, both in the Central General Staff, EMC, and the Second Marquetalia, which has given rise to the birth of more dissident factions with which the government maintains open peace tables, has complicated the Petro’s peace policy.
The president has stated that the disintegration of these armed groups fluctuates between “making peace with this government or deepening the war action that is increasingly directed at the rattle and against the people themselves in the regions of the conflict in Colombia.”
Petro’s social reforms
The Petro government presented an ambitious agenda of social reforms. In Congress, he achieved important advances such as the approval of the ban on bullfights and the pension reformconsidered one of his greatest political achievements.
However, other key initiatives such as labor and health reforms faced significant opposition, which has slowed their legislative progress.
In recent weeks, Congress sank the tax reform to finance the 2025 budget and rejected political reform, one of the government’s priority bets.
Historical reduction in deforestation
For the first time in decades, Colombia announced in 2024 that the country achieved a historic 36% reduction in deforestation, primarily in the Amazon area, which represents one-third of the entire Amazon Region. Between 2022 and 2023, the area affected by tree felling decreased from 123,000 hectares to 79,000, evidencing notable progress in the protection of ecosystems.
Breaking relations with Israel
In May, Petro announced the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel, accusing his government of committing “genocide” against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
This decision represented a break in the historical relations between both countries, which maintained economic, political and military agreements.
The breakup was preceded by a series of complaints from Petro to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The tanker corruption scandal
One of the biggest corruption scandals of 2024 involved the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) for the controversial purchase of 80 tanker trucks intended to supply drinking water in La Guajira, in northern Colombia.
The acquisition led to a gigantic scandalwith accusations of corruption leveling government officials, including the director of the UNGRD, ministers and a handful of politicians who are being investigated for allegedly receiving benefits on contracts for the purchase of trucks to support government reforms in voting in the legislature.
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