Former FARC party in Colombia seeks thousands of votes to remain in Congress

Описание: (2 Mar 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bogotá, Colombia - 26 February 2026
1. Various of former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) candidate Carlos Marin campaigning in Bogota
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Carlos Marin, former-FARC candidate for the Senate:
"Politics in Colombia is very complicated. Politics in Colombia, especially electoral politics, is based on money, on cronyism, on political machines. It's an intense struggle against parties that have been in this game for two centuries and have also been in power for two centuries."
3. Various of Marin campaigning
4. Various of Marin handing out campaign flyers to a fruit vendor on the streets of Bogota

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bogotá, Colombia - 23 February 2026
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Scott Campbell, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia:
“And above all, the Comunes (ex-FARC political party which translates roughly to commoners or commons) are one of the two contracting parties (signatories) of the peace agreement, so in order to continue with the implementation of the peace agreement, it is crucial that they have a political voice because the other option is a step backwards, a return to arms.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Llanos del Yari, Colombia - 14 September 2016
6. Various of FARC guerrillas at a camp in Llanos del Yari

ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Bogotá, Colombia - 20 November 2025
7. Various exteriors of the Congress of the Republic
STORYLINE:
Carlos Carreño Marín walks the streets of Bogotá seeking votes to retain his seat in the House of Representatives for the Comunes party, which emerged from the peace agreement signed a decade ago by the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group (FARC).

Passing by a fruit and vegetable stall in a market square, he hands a flyer to a vendor inviting her to vote “for a Common Bogotá” and introduces himself as “Sergio Marín,” the name he used while in hiding during the two decades he belonged to the FARC.

Marín needs thousands of votes in the March 8 legislative elections, not only to remain in Congress, but also to guarantee the future of Comunes, a minority party that struggles with the stigma of five decades of armed conflict with the state.

Since 2018, Marín has held one of the 10 seats in Congress granted to them by the peace agreement for two legislative terms - each lasting four years - as a way to guarantee their political participation after laying down their arms. For the first time since then, they are competing on equal terms with the other parties.

“Politics in Colombia is very complex, it's based on money... it's an intense struggle against parties that have been in this fight for two centuries and have also been in power for two centuries,” Marín, 48, told The Associated Press.

The votes obtained by Comunes have been low in Congress. In 2018, they gathered around 89,300 votes, and in 2022, they decreased to 50,100. Meanwhile, traditional parties reached a million votes or more.

In five decades of conflict, the former FARC was responsible for more than 96,900 murders, 29,410 disappearances, and more than 20,200 kidnappings, according to the Truth Commission, an extrajudicial body created by the peace agreement to clarify the facts of the conflict.

Scott Campbell, representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told The AP that it is “crucial” for the implementation of the peace agreement to continue that former combatants have a political voice, because the other option “is a step backward, a return to arms.”

AP Video shot by Marko Alvarez


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