President Gustavo Petro’s movement, Colombia Humana, has been excluded from the Historic Pact, a left-wing coalition that won him the 2022 election, as the structure has now been officially registered as a single party.
Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE, by its acronym in Spanish) legalized the constitution of the Historic Pact as a single party, after several groups that had made up the formation — until now an electoral coalition — requested to merge in order to become a single party.
Although this is a key step for the ruling party’s electoral intentions in 2026, the main party expected to join the new formation, President Gustavo Petro’s Colombia Humana, was left out, leaving the future of this organization up in the air.
The new party is the Colombian left’s main bet for next year’s legislative and presidential elections, with the goal of maintaining or increasing its presence in both chambers of Congress and repeating the historic left-wing presidential victory of 2022.
Left-wing coalition Historic Pact becomes a single party, as Petro’s Colombia Humana is excluded
In Wednesday’s plenary session, Sept. 17, the nine CNE magistrates unanimously approved the merger of the Democratic Pole, Patriotic Union, and Colombian Communist Party into the Historic Pact, a coalition formed in 2022 that, in order to continue existing, had to become a single party under Colombian electoral law.
The new political party receives the green light to compete electorally, with the March 2026 legislative elections on the horizon. However, the CNE’s decision excludes President Gustavo Petro’s Colombia Humana movement from the new umbrella of the Colombian left.
Colombia Humana was the strongest party inside the coalition and sought to join the new unitary formation. After the electoral authority’s decision, however, its future as a political organization is now uncertain. All this comes just over a month before the internal consultation to select official presidential candidates and determine the order of closed congressional lists.
The reason given by CNE for excluding Colombia Humana’s integration into the Historic Pact was its failure to reach the quorum required by the formation’s own statutes to approve the merger process.
In addition to Colombia Humana, the electoral body also excluded from the new party organizations such as Progresistas and Minga Indigena y Social, smaller entities that had aspired to join the new left-wing formation.
Consejo Nacional Electoral informa a la opinión pública: pic.twitter.com/JxxlaOTkBw
— CNE Colombia (@CNE_COLOMBIA) September 17, 2025
The future of Colombia Humana, up in the air after CNE decision
The CNE’s decision not to allow the inclusion of Colombia Humana in the new party was demanded by magistrate Altus Baquero, appointed by the Liberal Party. The member of Colombia’s highest electoral body argued that the meeting in which the merger of Colombia Humana with the Pact was approved only had 1,280 members present, a figure below the required threshold of 76,315 affiliates.
Colombia Humana already challegenged the Liberal magistrate’s decision because, according to the leadership of President Petro’s party, “prior modifications were made to lower the number required when making party decisions.” However, these claims were rejected by CNE, which has left out of the Historic Pact — the main party — that was supposed to be part of it, fueling all kinds of speculation about the future of both organizations.
On top of this, the internal consultation to choose candidates, scheduled for Oct. 26, is now uncertain, since the legal status of the Historic Pact would only take effect in November, just days before the left’s convention. “The CNE magistrates will be urged to resolve the pending investigations of the political groups that are merging before the first day of registrations for Congress, that is, Nov. 8, 2025,” reads the motion approved in the chamber of the electoral body.
The investigations refer to the former parties of the Patriotic Union, the Democratic Pole, and the Colombian Communist Party, now merged, which are under investigation for alleged irregularities in the financing of their campaigns.
This situation opens the door to the holding of internal consultations within each party, something that for now has neither been confirmed nor denied by any political organization.
As a reminder, Colombia Humana has three pre-candidates competing for the presidential nomination (Gustavo Bolivar, Susana Muhamad, and Gloria Florez).
The Historic Pact, the Colombian left’s project to stay in power
The Historic Pact coalition helped bring the Left to power in Colombia for the first time, more than three years ago. However, the decision to now move from a coalition to a single party responds to a legal necessity: Colombian electoral law does not allow repeating the coalition formula with which this alliance achieved a historic result in 2022, winning the largest bloc in Congress and taking Gustavo Petro to the presidency.
The Historic Pact was born in 2021 as an electoral brand that sought to bring together various progressive and leftist forces under a single umbrella. Its creation responded to the goal of overcoming the fragmentation that had characterized the alternative field for decades and made it difficult to compete with the major traditional parties.
In its first stage as a coalition, the bloc included Colombia Humana, the Alternative Democratic Pole, the Patriotic Union, the Colombian Communist Party, sectors of the Green Alliance, as well as social movements and grassroots organizations. That sum proved decisive in capitalizing on public discontent with the traditional political model and the conservative government of Ivan Duque (2018–2022), which faced massive social unrest expressed in the 2021 protests.
Now, the challenge is greater. As a single party, the Historic Pact will have to ensure internal cohesion among diverse currents ranging from moderate progressivism to the more radical Left. And all this with its main organization outside the unified party.
The coming weeks will determine how this new Left takes shape, as it loses parties and organizations such as those grouped in the Unitarios coalition. At the same time, it must preserve the electoral strength of 2022 amid the wear of Petro’s government and mounting pressure from the Right, which aims to retake power in 2026.