🗞️ Crisis continues in Catatumbo, in north-eastern Colombia.
Two weeks after violence erupted between armed groups, 53,000 people have now been displaced – the country’s largest mass displacement since the 1990s. Around 25,000 more are trapped in their homes due to the violence.
The number of murders reported during this upsurge of violence currently varies between 50 and 100. Twelve former FARC combatants – signatories to the 2016 peace agreement – are currently missing, with a further 150 now displaced.
President Gustavo Petro has declared a state of emergency and issued emergency decrees which release new funds, designed to finance military operations, transform the local economy, and promote peace in the area.
Catatumbo is a long-standing enclave of coca agriculture and a strategic corridor for trafficking, located on the border with Venezuela in the department of Norte de Santander.
Military operations have begun, and several humanitarian agencies have had to leave the area for their safety. The Colombian government has announced a joint operation with Venezuelan forces with the aim of ensuring ‘a border without mafias.’
Following the massacre of 14 people last weekend, a curfew was also imposed in the town of Tibú, with residents required to stay indoors between 8pm and 6am, and alcohol sales banned between 8pm and 4am.
Local community and campesino leaders - many of whom gathered to protest in Bogotá last week - have said that these measures are not sufficient.
The crisis erupted last month following the disintegration of a truce between armed groups: clashes broke out between the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the 33rd Front – a faction of the FARC dissidence led by alias ‘Calarcá.’ The latter group split from the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) last year.
The country’s ombudsman has warned that the ELN are directly attacking the civilian population. The ELN command say their attacks are due to the 33rd Front's attempt to plan an attack on them in alliance with the Colombian state, but have also blamed Petro for the crisis, saying he is ‘subordinate to the Pentagon’s military doctrine.’
The government has now suspended peace talks with the ELN, whose command has announced they will neither negotiate nor surrender. Peace Commissioner Otty Patiño has nonetheless said that the government is willing to resume talks as long as the ELN ‘reflect deeply.’
🗞️ Following last week’s public spat with United States President Donald Trump over deportees, Petro has asked Colombian migrants currently undocumented in the US to come home, promising loans from the Department of Social Prosperity to those who comply.
There are 200,000 Colombians living undocumented in the US, according to the Pew Research Center.
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