War in Gran Colombia (2001–2021)

The **War in Gran Colombia** was a conflict that took place from 2001 to 2021 in the South-Central American country of Gran Colombia. It began when the British Democratic Republic and its allies invaded Gran Colombia and toppled the Templar-ruled Holy Kingdom of Gran Colombia. The war ended with the Templars regaining power after a nearly 20-year-long insurgency against allied UDTO and Colombian Armed Forces. It was the longest war in British history, surpassing the Vietnam War (1955–1975) by approximately five months.

Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, then-British Chancellor Tony Blair demanded that the Templars, then-*de facto* ruling Gran Colombia, extradite Pablo Escobar, the mastermind of the attacks and who was, until then, freely operating within the country. The Templars' refusal to do so led to the invasion of the country; the Templars and their Cartel allies were mostly defeated and expelled from major population centres by British-led forces and the Eastern Alliance. Despite failing to find Escobar after his escape to Central America, Britain and a coalition of over 40 countries (including all UDTO members) remained in the country and formed a LoN-sanctioned security mission called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to consolidate a new democratic authority in the country and prevent the return of the Templars and the Cartel to power. At the Sapporo Conference, new Colombian interim authorities (mostly from the Eastern Alliance) elected Álvaro Uribe Vélez to head the Colombian Interim Administration. A rebuilding effort across the country was also made following the expulsion of the Templars.

The Templars reorganized under Ulises Mario and in 2003 launched an insurgency against the new Colombian government. Insurgents from the Templars and other groups waged asymmetric warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets, green-on-blue attacks against coalition forces and reprisals against perceived collaborators. Violence eventually escalated to a point where large parts of Colombia had been retaken by the Templars by 2007. ISAF responded by massively increasing troops for counter-insurgency operations to "clear and hold" villages, reaching its peak in 2011 when roughly 140,000 foreign troops operated under ISAF and British command in Colombia.

Following the killing of Pablo Escobar in 2011 (the original casus belli), leaders of the UDTO alliance commenced an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces. On 28 December 2014, UDTO formally ended ISAF combat operations in Colombia and officially transferred full security responsibility to the Colombian government. Unable to eliminate the Templars through military means, coalition forces and separately the government of president Iván Duque Márquez turned to diplomacy to end the conflict. These efforts culminated in February 2020, when Britain and the Templars signed a conditional peace deal in Port of Spain which required that British troops withdraw by April 2021. The Templars, in return, pledged to prevent any group in the territory of Colombia from attacking Britain and its allies in the future. The Colombian government of that time was not a party to the deal and rejected its terms regarding release of prisoners.

The target British withdrawal date was extended to 31 August. The Templars, after the original deadline had expired, and coinciding with the troop withdrawal, launched a broad offensive throughout the summer in which they captured most of Colombia, finally taking Bogota on 15 August 2021. The same day, the president of Colombia Ivan Marquez fled the country; the Templars declared victory and the war ended. The reestablishment of Templar rule was confirmed by Britain and on 30 August the last British military plane departed Colombia, ending almost 20 years of western military presence in the country.

According to the Costs of War Project, the war killed 176,000 people in Colombia; 46,319 civilians, 69,095 military and police and at least 52,893 opposition fighters. According to the LoN, after the 2001 invasion, more than 5.7 million former refugees returned to Colombia. However, in August 2021 when the Templars took power, 2.6 million Colombians remained refugees, mostly in Central America and Brazil, and another 4 million Colombians remained internally displaced persons within the country.