In a jungle clearing in southern Colombia, 99 fighters of the National Coordinating Committee of the Bolivarian Army (CNEB) filed past a shipping container emblazoned with the slogan “I bet on life, I fulfil my commitment to peace” and deposited their rifles. The ceremony, held three days before a presidential runoff, represents the most tangible success of President Gustavo Petro’s ambitious but largely stalled “total peace” initiative. The rebels, clad in camouflage, were then airlifted by military helicopter to a solar-powered settlement in the Guamuez Valley, where they will remain for up to ten months while negotiations over definitive disarmament and legal status continue.

The CNEB is a dissident faction of the FARC, the Marxist insurgency that signed a historic peace accord in 2016 after half a century of war. Unlike the main FARC body, which surrendered weapons only a year after its agreement, this group has laid down arms at the outset of talks — a gesture government negotiators call “a very strong and powerful message for Colombian society at a time when there is so much noise about war.” The group controls key cocaine-producing corridors along the Ecuadorian border and is estimated to field between 2,000 and 2,500 fighters, making it smaller than the National Liberation Army or the breakaway faction led by Ivan Mordisco, the country’s most-wanted rebel. Yet it is the only armed organisation to have made meaningful progress with Petro, whose outreach to other guerrilla and paramilitary groups has largely collapsed.

The disarmament unfolds against a deeply polarised electoral backdrop. On Sunday, Colombians will choose between leftist senator Ivan Cepeda, a Petro ally who vows to continue the peace drive, and far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who campaigns on an “iron fist” doctrine of mega-prisons, aerial bombardments, and military offensives against drug traffickers. De la Espriella has also pledged to dismantle the transitional justice tribunal established by the 2016 accord. Viewed from Washington, the election carries stark geopolitical overtones: President Donald Trump has endorsed De la Espriella, while Petro has angered the White House by refusing to extradite guerrilla commanders engaged in peace talks.

Analysts in Bogotá caution that the CNEB’s gesture, however symbolically potent, remains fragile. The fighters have not yet fully disarmed, and the ten-month window for legal and social reintegration could easily be derailed by a change of government. European diplomats note that the ceremony’s timing — just before a vote that could bury “total peace” — is a calculated attempt to demonstrate that dialogue can yield results, even as other armed groups intensify attacks on civilians to destabilise the electoral process.

With Petro due to hand over power on 7 August, the fate of his signature policy hangs on the ballot. Should Cepeda prevail, the CNEB process may become a template for broader engagement. A victory for De la Espriella, by contrast, would likely trigger an immediate rupture, returning the state to a doctrine of military confrontation. For a country that remains the world’s largest cocaine producer and has endured decades of multi-sided conflict, the jungle ceremony in Putumayo is either a belated vindication of negotiated peace or its final, fleeting image.