This paper studies the determinants of the protest cycle between 2010 and 2016 in Colombia. First, it examines the dynamics of institutional politics in the last three decades. The second part analyzes the consequences of the armed conflict and the repression of social movements and organizations. Finally, it describes the organizational and discursive recomposition in social movements. The political context is characterized by the closure of institutional politics and the persistence of repression of social movements. However, the great mobilizations have been possible, first, because they have organizational infrastructures and speeches capable of articulating diverse actors and, second, because peace negotiations motivate an expansion of the public agenda towards systematically blocked social problems, so that Potential benefits of the positioning of the demands of the movements is greater than the costs of collective action in terms of repression.