Government removes Salvatore Mancuso's designation as peace manager

The President of the Republic, Abelardo de la Espriella, withdrew the designation as peace envoy of Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, a former member of the self-styled United Self-Defenses of Colombia. The decision is contained in Executive Resolution 429 of 2026, issued on September 21, 2026, and published in the Official Gazette No. 53,635 on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, on page 3.

The act was issued in exercise of the powers under numeral 11 of Article 189 of the Political Constitution and based on Law 418 of 1997, modified and extended by Laws 548 of 1999, 782 of 2002, 1106 of 2006, 1421 of 2010, 1738 of 2014, 1779 of 2016, 1941 of 2018, and 2272 of 2022, as well as Decree number 1175 of 2016. The resolution recalls that Article 10 of Law 418 of 1997 establishes that the direction of peace policy corresponds to the President of the Republic as the person responsible for the preservation of public order throughout the Nation.

A designation in effect since 2023

Salvatore Mancuso Gómez had been designated as a peace envoy through Resolution number 244 of August 14, 2023, which identified him with citizenship ID number 6892624. The assignment consisted of contributing, with his knowledge and experience, to the design of collective disarmament processes for illegal groups operating throughout the national territory, prioritizing the areas where they carry out their criminal activity.

Article 1 of the new resolution withdraws that designation. Article 2 orders the communication of the decision, through the Office of the Peace Commissioner Counselor, to the corresponding authority for their competence. Article 4 provides that the resolution takes effect from the date of its issuance.

Background of the process with the self-defenses

The recitals reconstruct the Government’s relationship with the former paramilitary leader:

• On July 15, 2003, the national Government and the self-styled United Self-Defenses of Colombia signed the Santa Fe de Ralito Agreement, in which the armed group committed to demobilizing all of its members.
• Through Resolution number 128 of July 26, 2004, Salvatore Mancuso Gómez was recognized as a representative member of that organization before the democratic forum organized by the House of Representatives.
• On December 10, 2004, he demobilized from the Catatumbo Block collectively, according to information provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace.
• On October 30, 2022, he expressed his willingness to provide truth regarding the Colombian armed conflict and, through a public communication on July 24, 2023, reiterated his commitment to the total peace agenda and his willingness to fulfill the tasks assigned as a peace envoy.

The legal framework of peace envoys

The resolution cites Article 61 of Law 975 of 2005, which empowers the President of the Republic to request from the competent authority the conditional suspension of the sentence and the benefit of an alternative sentence in favor of members of organized armed groups operating outside the law with whom humanitarian agreements are reached. That article was regulated by Decree number 1175 of July 19, 2016, whose Article 40 obliges beneficiaries to commit to acting as peace promoters, attending judicial proceedings whenever required, signing an act before the High Commissioner for Peace, and submitting monthly reports of their activities.

The Judgment C-630 of 2017 of the Constitutional Court is also invoked, according to which political bodies have a wide margin of discretion to design mechanisms for the peaceful resolution of conflicts and to achieve the submission of illegal actors to the Rule of Law.

The removal of Salvatore Mancuso Gómez from the list of peace promoters touches upon one of the pillars of the process with former paramilitary chiefs and reopens the debate on the role of these collaborators in transitional justice and in the Government’s “total peace” policy.

Source: Official Gazette, No. 53,635 of September 22, 2026, Presidency of the Republic – Executive Resolutions, p. 3 (official reference: Executive Resolution 429 of 2026).