Narino

Geography made Nariño a corridor before states made it a border. The Andes descend here to their narrowest point, creating a natural pass between highland Quito and coastal Ecuador. Pre-Colombian traders moved goods along this route; Spanish colonizers followed. When Gran Colombia fragmented, the border fell through Nariño, transforming a trade corridor into a frontier zone. The same geography that enabled commerce now enables contraband.

Today Nariño holds 65,000 hectares of coca—26% of Colombia's total—and serves as ground zero for the cocaine trade. The port of Tumaco ships legal bananas and illegal cocaine along the same Pacific routes. Ipiales on the Ecuador border handles both formal trade and informal migration. Yet 2024 marked an inflection: two armed groups entered negotiations under President Petro's Total Peace policy, establishing encampment zones and signing crop substitution agreements. Nariño became one of the few places where the policy produced concrete results rather than just rhetoric.

The new Catambuco-Pasto road, completed in late 2024, strengthens legitimate cross-border trade with Ecuador while the FAO Blue Ports initiative positions Tumaco for sustainable fisheries. By 2026, Nariño will test whether infrastructure and negotiated peace can redirect corridor economics from coca to coffee, from trafficking to trade. If the armed groups honor their agreements and substitution programs deliver alternative incomes, Nariño could model Colombia's post-conflict transition. If not, it remains ground zero.