Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has signed a decree lifting a decade-long suspension on carrying legal firearms in public, fulfilling a campaign pledge rooted in his iron-fist approach to crime. The move affects nearly 700,000 Colombians who already hold valid gun permits, allowing them to carry their registered weapons outside their homes without needing additional authorisation — a requirement that had been in place since December 2015.
The original restriction was introduced by then-President Juan Manuel Santos as a temporary security measure over the Christmas and New Year period. It was subsequently extended year after year by Santos and two successors from opposite ends of the political spectrum — conservative Iván Duque and left-wing Gustavo Petro — making what was meant to be a short-term measure effectively permanent. De la Espriella, who took office on August 7, has argued that lifting it merely restores rights that should never have been suspended indefinitely. "A man's word is his honour, and I have honour, that's why I keep my word," he said while signing the decree, stressing that strict controls over who can own a firearm would remain unchanged.
Critics have pushed back sharply. Green Alliance Party Senator Ariel Ávila called the move a "grave error", warning that legally held guns would inevitably find their way into criminal hands and arguing that only state forces should carry weapons and act as guarantors of public safety. The debate over the decree sits within a wider controversy surrounding the new government's security strategy. Human rights ombudsman Iris Marín has publicly challenged the president over footage showing him walking among the bodies of suspected FARC dissident fighters killed during Operation Azarías, a late-August military raid in Miraflores, in the southern Guaviare department. "I do not recall seeing a president walking among the dead and feeling proud of those deaths," Marín said, warning against the state entering into a competition over displays of force with armed groups. Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara dismissed her statement as "a sad mistake" but thanked her office for its constructive tone.
The ombudsman's concerns extend further. She has flagged an unofficial website tallying government killings and arrests, and recalled the grim precedent of Colombia's "false positives" scandal, in which soldiers murdered civilians and presented them as combat deaths. A court has also ordered a halt to air strikes in areas where evidence suggests recruited minors may be present — a significant constraint given that the ombudsman's office recorded more than 1,100 cases of minors affected by forced recruitment between 2024 and mid-2026.
The gun decree and the bodies controversy together illustrate the tensions running through Colombia's new security approach. De la Espriella has defended his record, citing nearly 15,000 arrests and the seizure of more than 49,000 kilos of narcotics since taking office, along with over 15,000 illegal firearms confiscated — most linked to FARC breakaway factions and the Gulf Clan criminal organisation. How the government balances firmness with accountability is likely to remain a defining political question in the months ahead.