Colombia defense budget 2025 allocates $12.7 billion over a decade to strengthen security, protect vulnerable communities, and confront armed groups—while reaffirming commitment to peace.
Related: Colombian Government Rejects Nobel Peace Prize Award for Machado Due to Belligerent Stance
In a strategic move to confront escalating violence in rural regions, the Colombian government has unveiled a sweeping Colombia defense budget 2025 initiative that commits $12.7 billion (49 trillion Colombian pesos) over the next decade to modernize national defense and reinforce state presence in conflict-affected territories. President Gustavo Petro announced the plan as part of a broader vision centered on human security—prioritizing the protection of civilian life over purely military objectives.
Speaking alongside Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez, Petro emphasized that the investment is not a return to militarism, but a necessary shield for peacebuilding. “This is about guaranteeing the right to life in territories abandoned by the state for decades,” he stated. The funding will be formalized through a National Development Plan document issued by the Consejo Nacional de Política Económica y Social (Conpes)—Colombia’s highest planning authority—and will guide defense and security policy through 2035.
The decision comes amid a surge in attacks by residual armed groups, including dissident factions of the former FARC, paramilitary successors, and narcotrafficking networks. In 2025 alone, 170 social leaders have been assassinated, and recent bombings in Aguachica and Buenos Aires have left dozens of security forces injured, underscoring the urgent need for a coordinated state response.
“The priority is the security of people—not just territory,” said Minister Sánchez. “We are investing in technology, logistics, and the well-being of our military personnel to ensure they can operate effectively while respecting human rights.”
Colombia Defense Budget 2025: Human Security and Technological Modernization
Unlike previous defense strategies focused on combat metrics, the new Colombia defense budget 2025 framework integrates human security as its core principle. This means deploying not only troops, but also social programs, early warning systems, and community protection mechanisms in coordination with local authorities.
Key components of the plan include the acquisition of advanced surveillance drones, encrypted communication systems, armored medical evacuation vehicles, and biometric identification tools to track armed actors. Equally important is the commitment to improve living conditions for frontline troops, many of whom operate in remote jungle or mountain regions with limited infrastructure.
Read Colombia’s Ministry of Defense official statement on the 2025–2035 security strategy
The government has already defined tactical adjustments for immediate deployment in high-risk departments such as Cauca and Norte de Santander, where armed groups control illicit economies and frequently attack energy infrastructure, roads, and community leaders. The new strategy will increase military mobility, enhance intelligence fusion, and establish joint civil-military command posts to improve coordination with mayors, Indigenous councils, and Afro-Colombian community boards.
Critically, the plan explicitly rejects the notion that security can be achieved through force alone. Instead, it positions defense capabilities as enablers of social development. As Petro explained: “You cannot build schools, clinics, or roads in areas where armed groups dictate who lives and who dies. Security is the foundation of justice.”
Explore the UN Office on Colombia’s support for integrated rural security and peace implementation
This integrated approach reflects lessons from the 2016 Peace Agreement, which showed that disarmament without state presence leads to power vacuums—quickly filled by new armed actors. The current strategy aims to prevent that cycle by ensuring that military advances are followed immediately by investments in health, education, land restitution, and rural electrification.
Geopolitical Context: Sovereignty, Peace, and the Global South’s Security Dilemma
The Colombia defense budget 2025 must be understood within a complex regional and global context. As one of the few Latin American nations still grappling with active internal armed conflict, Colombia faces unique security challenges that blend criminal violence, ideological insurgency, and transnational drug trafficking.
Yet the Petro administration is navigating this reality without aligning itself with U.S.-led militarized counter-narcotics models that have historically fueled displacement and environmental destruction. Instead, it is crafting a sovereign, rights-based security doctrine—one that aligns with progressive governments in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile that view violence as a symptom of inequality, not merely a law enforcement problem.
Regionally, Colombia’s approach could influence debates in countries like Ecuador and Venezuela, where similar hybrid threats—criminal gangs mixed with political violence—are destabilizing border zones. A successful model that combines defense, development, and dialogue could offer a template for the entire Andean region.
Globally, the plan challenges the dominant narrative that associates “strong defense” with offensive capabilities or foreign intervention. In the Global South, where state weakness is often the root of insecurity, true defense means protecting civilians, not projecting power. Colombia’s emphasis on human security resonates with UN frameworks and the African Union’s “Silencing the Guns” initiative—both of which prioritize community resilience over battlefield dominance.
Moreover, the investment comes at a time when global defense spending is skyrocketing—yet Colombia’s allocation remains modest relative to GDP (under 3.5%) and is explicitly tied to social outcomes. This positions the country not as a militarized state, but as a laboratory for post-conflict security innovation.
As Minister Sánchez noted, “The ultimate goal is not to have more soldiers, but to need fewer of them—because peace has taken root.”
For now, communities in Cauca and Norte de Santander await tangible change. But with a clear legal framework, long-term financing, and a doctrine centered on dignity, the Colombia defense budget 2025 may mark the beginning of a new chapter: one where the state finally arrives not as an army of occupation, but as a guarantor of life.
Review the World Bank’s analysis of Colombia’s rural development and security integration efforts
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Greta Thunberg famously joined fellow activists from around the world on a humanitarian flotilla in October, in an attempt to break the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza. At the time, the British Government saw fit to abandon their own citizens who were abducted by Israel, and now it is seen to be abandoning the hunger strikers in our prisons.
On Saturday 20 December, Thunberg appeared at the protest in support of the hunger strikers, once again putting our own government to shame:
EXCLUSIVE:
The Canary's @JustBarold spoke to @GretaThunberg tonight. She gave her thoughts on how Labour is treating the hunger strikers, its disgraceful complicity with Israel's genocide, & what we all need to be doing to affect change for the Palestinian people
pic.twitter.com/Bz4UTpxnMN
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) December 20, 2025
Greta Thunberg: government is ‘criminalising empathy’
Greta Thunberg spoke with our reporter, Barold, defending the hunger strikers in UK prisons. Thunberg calls out the moral and legal failings of our government and international community, whilst highlighting the solidarity shown across the world for Palestine:
The UK government has failed miserably in fulfilling their bare minimum legal duties to prevent and stop a genocide from happening. And what has happened here is that civilians have taken on that responsibility to act to end the complicity in genocide and are now being punished. We are criminalising empathy.
So I don’t need to express my utter disgust for the UK government and their treatment of this. It is not the first time the UK government are letting political prisoners die in prison. They are on the wrong side of history and it is crystal clear that they are on the wrong side of history. and we have people all over the world who show our whole heart and support to the hunger strikers and to activists, people all over the world who are raising their voices to end the publicity in the Gaza genocide.
Speaking to the legal issues which have prompted the prisoners to go on hunger strike, Thunberg clarified:
And I fully stand behind their demands, which is the right to a fair trial, and the censorship of the communication, immediate bail, and the prescription of Palestine action. as well as stopping air resistance operations in Britain.
This genocide in Gaza, if you can even say genocide, it’s so much more. It’s not, would never have been possible without countries like the UK seeing a deliberate… attempt to deliberately erase an entire population by Israel with help of the entire world. And we have to teach them that no one has the privilege of saying we did not know what was done.
When asked by our reporter, Barold, about the importance of supporting the hunger strikers:
It is crucial because that is showing what leadership looks like. We are telling people, Palestinians are calling for people all over the world to step up and take action. And that is what people have done. They are the true leaders. So the UK government are letting people in their 20s who are not convicted of any crime die in prison, in hunger strike, for demands which are the bare minimum.
Solidarity in action
Addressing the role that every person can play to show solidarity with Palestine, Greta Thunberg added:
We need to push from every possible direction and whoever you are you have a role to play. Whatever platform you have you will have people you can reach that you can affect. You can either take direct action, you can get organized in many other ways, boycott and divest. If you get in contact with people in your local community who share the same values as you, there are almost no limits to what you can accomplish together when it comes to standing up for human rights and showing solidarity.
As the situation for the hunger strikers continues to deteriorate, people in Sheffield came out to show their respect and solidarity
#ukpolitics #news #palestine #protest #hungerstrike @Prisoners4Pal @JustBarold pic.twitter.com/DKIG1mEQX5
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) December 21, 2025
Ignorance and denial
The hunger strikers are part of the Filton 24, a group imprisoned for a year and a half without trial. They are held for allegedly causing damage to an Israeli weapons factory in Bristol. This action reportedly took place in protest against the UK’s role in the mass murder of Palestinians. In contravention with our obligations under international law, the UK are still providing arms supplies, spy planes, and diplomatic support to Israel enabling its genocide.
Our own reporter, Skwawkbox, wrote on Friday about how David Lammy’s spokesperson, James Timpson, tried to argue that the government doesn’t ‘treat any prisoners differently to others’. However, Thunberg points out that these prisoners are being neglected of their rights to due process. Until those rights are duly afforded, the hunger strike will likely continue.
But our leaders will be complicit if any of these principled protesters die under their watch – as Greta Thunberg outlined.
Featured image via Barold
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Following their Trip episode about the meaning of ‘mainstream’, the gang go deeper into ‘Mainstream’ – that is, the new soft-left faction inside Labour. Yes, a festive episode about the inner workings of your favourite political party!
Jem, Nadia and Keir explain the emergence of Mainstream’s ‘radical realists’ – who include Andy Burnham and Clive Lewis – by exploring the lesser-known history of political tendencies that have shaped and split the Labour Party since the second world war.
Follow our Spotify playlist of all the music discussed on ACFM and subscribe to the ACFM mailing list to get weirder and leftier.
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Support our work: http://novara.media/support Norman Finkelstein is one of the West’s leading anti-Zionist scholars. The son of holocaust survivors, he has spent his life studying and critiquing Israel’s assault on Palestine, decades before it became socially acceptable to do so in the West.
Yet despite having dedicated his career to it, by the day before Hamas’ attack in October 2023, Norman had all but given up on the cause of Palestinian liberation. His most recent book on the subject had sold 370 copies. When news of the attack arrived, Norman knew people would want to hear from him. He wrestled with what to say, eventually coming to the view that Hamas’ actions could be viewed through the lens of the Slave Rebellions in the early 1800s: heinous acts of violence borne out of desperate circumstances. Acts that he could not condemn.
In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Norman tells the story of his parents’ lives before the war, and the life they built in the shadow of the Holocaust. Could they speak about what they had been through? How did their experience impact Norman’s work and his devotion to the truth? What was it like arguing with his mentor, Noam Chomsky? And what is Israel’s endgame?
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A Johannesburg nightclub shooting in Bekkersdal left 10 dead and 10 wounded—highlighting South Africa’s escalating crisis of armed violence and urban insecurity.
Related: Africa: Over 8,000 Lives Lost to Cholera and Mpox in 2025
A Johannesburg nightclub shooting has sent shockwaves across South Africa after at least ten people were killed and ten others wounded in a late-night massacre in the township of Bekkersdal, west of the country’s largest city. According to local police, the attack unfolded Saturday night when a group of unidentified armed men opened fire indiscriminately on patrons inside a tavern and pedestrians on the street, turning a weekend gathering into a scene of chaos and bloodshed.
Emergency services rushed the injured to nearby hospitals, where medical teams worked through the night to stabilize the wounded. Authorities have not yet released the victims’ identities, but community leaders confirm that among the dead are young adults and working residents of Bekkersdal—a historic mining settlement that has long grappled with poverty, unemployment, and gang-related violence.
“It was like war,” one eyewitness told local media, describing how gunfire erupted without warning. “People were running, screaming, falling. No one knew who was shooting or why.”
Police say the motive remains unclear and no arrests have been made. However, they confirmed that a full-scale manhunt is underway and that forensic units have secured the crime scene for ballistic analysis. Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage from nearby businesses and have appealed to the public for tips.
Johannesburg Nightclub Shooting: A Symptom of South Africa’s Deepening Security Crisis
The Bekkersdal massacre is not an isolated incident but part of a terrifying trend of armed violence in South Africa’s townships and urban centers. In recent years, the country has seen a surge in mass shootings at taverns, taxi ranks, and community events—often linked to gang rivalries, illegal liquor trade, and the proliferation of unlicensed firearms.
Bekkersdal, established in 1945 to house gold mine workers during apartheid, remains economically marginalized despite its proximity to Johannesburg’s industrial and financial hub. With youth unemployment exceeding 60% in some areas, many residents—especially young men—turn to informal economies where violence becomes both currency and consequence.
Read the South African Police Service (SAPS) 2025 Crime Statistics Report
Local officials point to systemic failures: under-resourced police stations, slow emergency response times, and a lack of community-based violence prevention programs. “We’ve been begging for more officers, for better lighting, for youth centers,” said a Bekkersdal councilor. “But our pleas vanish into bureaucracy.”
Compounding the issue is the flood of illegal weapons into South African townships. According to the Institute for Security Studies, over 40% of firearms recovered from crime scenes are unregistered, many smuggled from neighboring conflict zones or diverted from private security firms. In environments where the state is perceived as absent or corrupt, armed groups fill the vacuum—imposing their own order through fear.
Review the Institute for Security Studies’ analysis on gun violence in South Africa
This latest Johannesburg nightclub shooting has reignited national debate over President Cyril Ramaphosa’s pledge to “end the scourge of violence” by 2025. Despite the launch of the National Anti-Gang Unit and increased deployment of police reservists, homicide rates remain among the highest in the world, with over 27,000 murders reported annually—equivalent to more than 70 deaths per day.
Critics argue that the government’s approach is too militarized and fails to address root causes: inequality, spatial segregation, and intergenerational trauma stemming from apartheid and colonial dispossession. Without investment in jobs, mental health services, and community reconciliation, they warn, mass shootings will keep happening.
Geopolitical Context: Urban Violence and the Legacy of Apartheid
The Johannesburg nightclub shooting reflects a broader crisis affecting post-colonial cities across the Global South—where historic exclusion, economic despair, and weak governance converge to fuel everyday violence. In South Africa, the spatial architecture of apartheid still shapes life: townships like Bekkersdal were deliberately placed on urban peripheries, disconnected from infrastructure, opportunity, and state protection.
This legacy has created a dual society: gleaming business districts coexist with informal settlements where crime thrives not because of moral failure, but because of structural abandonment. International observers note that South Africa’s homicide rate—34 per 100,000 people—is nearly seven times higher than the global average, with most victims being Black working-class men under 35.
Explore UNODC’s Global Study on Homicide: Southern Africa Regional Data
Regionally, South Africa’s instability has ripple effects. As a regional economic engine, its internal crises impact trade, investment, and migration across Southern Africa. Moreover, the flow of weapons and criminal networks often crosses borders into Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho—turning localized violence into a transnational security challenge.
Globally, the Bekkersdal massacre underscores a harsh truth: democracy alone does not guarantee safety. Without redress for historical injustice and concrete pathways out of poverty, even countries with strong constitutions and vibrant civil societies can become landscapes of silent emergency.
Yet amid the grief, resilience persists. Community organizations in Bekkersdal have already begun organizing vigils, trauma counseling, and youth dialogues. “We won’t let fear silence us,” said a local activist. “Our dead deserve justice—and our living deserve peace.”
As investigations continue, one demand echoes from the streets to the halls of Parliament: South Africa must confront its violence not with more bullets, but with bold, inclusive policies that restore dignity to its most forgotten communities.
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