More than 80 people were killed in the northeast of the country this weekend as a result of the government’s failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Armysaid a Colombian official.
Twenty others were injured in the violence that has forced thousands of people to flee as the Colombian army tried to evacuate people on Sunday, said William Villamizar, governor of North Santander, where many of the killings took place.
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The victims include community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people who tried to sign a peace deal, according to a report released late Saturday by a government ombudsman.
Officials said the attacks took place in several towns in the Catatumbo region, near the border with Venezueladuring which at least three people who were part of the peace talks were kidnapped.
People displaced by violence in towns in the Catatumbo region, where National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels have clashed with former members of Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, are lining up to register for shelter in a stadium in Cúcuta, Colombia. Sunday January 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Thousands of people are fleeing the area, some hiding in nearby lush mountains or seeking help at government shelters.
“We were caught in the crossfire,” said Juan Gutiérrez, who fled with his family to a temporary shelter in Tibú after being forced to leave their animals and belongings behind. ‘We didn’t have time to pack our things. I hope the government remembers us. We are helpless here.’
The Colombian army 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 were evacuated by helicopter.
Defense Minister Iván Velásquez traveled to the northeastern city of Cúcuta on Sunday, where he held several security meetings and urged armed groups to demobilize.
“The priority is to save lives and ensure the safety of communities,” he said. “We have deployed our troops throughout the region.”
Officials are also ready to send 10 tons of food and hygiene packages to about 5,000 people in the communities of Ocaña and Tibú, the majority of whom have fled the violence.
“Catatumbo needs help,” Villamizar said in a public speech on Saturday. “Boys, girls, youth, teenagers, entire families are showing up with nothing, riding trucks, dump trucks, motorcycles, whatever they can, on foot, to avoid being victims of this confrontation.”
The attack comes after Colombia suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) on Friday, the second time 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, municipal official of the city of Convención, located in the North Santander region. “We are afraid that the crisis will worsen.”
Trinidad called on insurgent groups to sit down and work out a new agreement so that “we citizens do not have to suffer the consequences we are suffering now.”
The ELN has clashed in Catatumbo with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group that split after signing a 2016 peace deal with the Colombian government. The two fight for control of a strategic border region with coca leaf plantations.
In a statement on Saturday, the ELN said it had warned former FARC members that if they “continued to attack the population… there was no other way out than an armed confrontation.” The ELN has accused ex-FARC rebels of several killings in the area, including the January 15 killing of a couple and their nine-month-old baby.
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Army Commander General Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría said on Saturday that authorities are strengthening a humanitarian corridor between Tibú and Cúcuta for the safe passage of those forced to flee their homes. He said special urban forces have also been deployed in municipal capitals “where there are risks and a lot of fear.”
The ELN has tried five times to reach a peace deal with the government of President Gustavo Petro, but talks failed after periods of violence. ELN demands, among other things, that it be recognized as a political rebel organization, which critics say is risky.
