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More than 80 people died in the northeast of the country over the weekend after the government’s failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Armysaid a Colombian official.
Twenty more people were injured in the violence that forced thousands to flee as Colombia’s army rushed to evacuate people on Sunday, according to William Villamizar, governor of northern Santander, where many of the killings took place.
Among the victims are community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people who were seeking to sign a peace agreement, according to a report that a government people’s defense agency published Saturday night.
Authorities said the attacks occurred in several towns located in the Catatumbo region, near the border. with VenezuelaAt least three people who were part of the peace talks were kidnapped.
People displaced by violence in towns in the Catatumbo region, where rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, line up to register for shelter at a stadium in Cúcuta , Colombia. Sunday January 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Thousands of people are fleeing the area, with some hiding in the lush mountains nearby or seeking help in government shelters.
“We were caught in the crossfire,” said Juan Gutiérrez, who fled with his family to a temporary shelter in Tibú after they were forced to leave their animals and belongings behind. “We didn’t have time to take our things… I hope the government remembers us… We are defenseless here.”
Colombia’s military rescued dozens of people on Sunday, including a family and their dog, whose owner held a pack of cold water against the animal’s chest to keep it cool as they evacuated by helicopter.
Defense Minister Iván Velásquez He traveled to the northeastern town of Cúcuta on Sunday, where he held several security meetings and urged armed groups to demobilize.
“The priority is to save lives and guarantee the safety of communities,” he said. “We have deployed our troops throughout the region.”
Officials also prepared to send 10 tons of food and hygiene kits to approximately 5,000 people in the communities of Ocaña and Tibú, most of them fleeing violence.
“Catatumbo needs help,” Villamizar said in a public speech Saturday. “Boys, girls, young people, adolescents, entire families show up with nothing, in trucks, dump trucks, motorcycles, whatever they can, on foot, so as not to be victims of this confrontation.”
The attack comes after Colombia suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) on Friday, the second time it has done so in less than a year.
The Colombian government has demanded that the ELN cease all attacks and allow authorities to enter the region and provide humanitarian aid.
“Displacement is killing us here in the region,” said José Trinidad, a municipal official in the town of Convencion, located in the Norte de Santander region. “We are afraid that the crisis will get worse.”
Trinidad called on the insurgent groups to sit down and negotiate a new agreement so that “we civilians do not have to suffer the consequences that we are suffering now.”
The ELN has been clashing in Catatumbo with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group that dissolved after signing a peace agreement in 2016 with the Colombian government. The two are fighting for control of a strategic border region that has coca leaf plantations.
In a statement on Saturday, the ELN said it had warned former FARC members that if they “continued attacking the population… there was no other way out than armed confrontation.” The ELN has accused former FARC rebels of several murders in the area, including the Jan. 15 murder of a couple and their nine-month-old baby.
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Army commander Gen. Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría said Saturday that authorities were reinforcing a humanitarian corridor between Tibú and Cúcuta for the safe passage of those forced to flee their homes. He said that special urban troops were also deployed in municipal capitals “where there are risks and a lot of fear.”
The ELN has attempted to negotiate a peace agreement with President Gustavo Petro’s administration five times, but the talks failed after episodes of violence. The ELN’s demands include being recognized as a rebel political organization, which critics have said is risky.
