<p>Regarding the imminent challenges of Colombia related to peacebuilding, this article carries out the conceptual review of the relationships between empathy and social reconciliation, in contexts of violence associated with the armed conflict. Firstly, it introduces both categories, pointing out what was found in research production, and their links with imaginative capacity and moral development. In a second section, the empathy and its dynamics on contexts of structural violence is emphasized hence risks are made visible as they undermine the power of empathy and the willingness to restore friendly relations between victims and perpetrators. Finally, the challenges of social reconciliation are presented as an empathic key. The conclusions reasserted that, even when there are limitations in the empathy construct and not enough studies on how it is related to social reconciliation, this relation offers opportunities to a deeper understanding of processes of peacebuilding.</p>