“We want peace, stop the war now!“cries Gladis Angarita, one of the thousands of displaced people who arrived between Friday and Saturday in Tibú (Cauca), fleeing a bloody attack by the guerrilla of the ELN on the border with Venezuela that leaves dozens dead.
Sitting on a log, the woman pauses to take her asthma medicine, and adds: “we are suffering(…) We have nothing to do with this whole war. For God’s sake, have a conscience, we want peace“.
Angarita, 62 years old, He remains with about 500 people, including children and the elderly.in the facilities of the Citizen Integration Center of Tibú, the Colombian municipality with the most drug crops in the world according to the UNof about 60,000 inhabitants.
Its coliseum serves as a shelter for a part of the more than 2,500 displaced people from nearby towns who escaped the rebel onslaught in the Catatumbo region, border with Venezuela. Since Thursday, the National Liberation Army (ELN) has been attacking civilians and fighting blood and fire with FARC dissidents who departed from the 2016 peace agreement.
The balance: at least 60 dead, dozens injured, thousands displaced and a trail of terror. Almost in parallel and in another region in the north of the country, nine people died in clashes between the ELN and the Gulf Clanthe largest drug cartel in the country.
The violent wave led to the decision of President Gustavo Petro to suspend peace negotiations with the guerrillaswhom he accused of perpetrating “war crimes“Angarita left her town in terror on Friday.”because there was a lot of lead (shots)”. “Out of fear, we have left everything“, he tells AFP. “I don’t even wear a robe to sleep in. Sitting here where you see me, this is how I have to stay“he laments.
Worse than in Venezuela
Tibu was abuzz on Saturday. The bus terminal was packed with people desperate to flee to other regions of Colombia and even Venezuela. “Catatumbo hurts me, Colombia hurts me, the whole country hurts me because there are many innocent people who are paying in the war for things that we have no reason to experience.“, says Carmelina Pérez, also 62, through tears.
“My daughters stayed at my house because they didn’t want to go out. I go with the children and my husband, who is also older.“, he sobs, before taking a motorbike towards Cúcuta, right on the border with Venezuela. He covers himself with cardboard from the harsh sun.
In the shelter, filled with hammocks hanging from trees and soccer goals, children run around. Several women prepare a “collective sancocho“, a soup with root vegetables, vegetables and seasonings, in a large pot on burning logs. Among the hustle and bustle, a young couple and their little son ride on a motorcycle carrying a white flag as a sign of peace.
The conflict “it’s very ugly“says Luis Alberto Urrutia, a Venezuelan who fled the crisis in his country seven years ago and settled in the mountains of Catatumbo. There he made a living as a raspachín or coca leaf collector, in the country that produces the most cocaine in the world. “We see that this is more difficult than in Venezuela because of the conflict there is. Then we better return to Venezuela“Adds the 39-year-old man, who fears for his life and that of his family. “There is danger everywhere, but more here. (…) There are many dead“, he maintains.
(See more: The measures that the Government is analyzing in the face of public order crisis in Catatumbo)
“Panic”
The escalation of violence surprised Eloina Abril, a 47-year-old Colombian farmer, when she was in Tibú doing personal errands. “I came to do some laps here and this violence caught us“says the woman, now trapped in the town without being able to return home. “The war is now against us, the peasants. (…) There is a lot of desperation“says April.
Raised in arms since 1964 and of Guevarist inspiration, the ELN has some 5,800 combatants and a wide network of collaborators, according to military intelligence. Petro had been negotiating with the guerrilla since 2022, in a process fraught with disagreements.
Its federated structure has been one of the biggest obstacles to reaching agreements throughout six governments, including the current one. The left-wing president also supports a negotiated solution to the conflict with dissidents from the FARC and other organizations. “To the guerrillas, to the ELN: look at who they are going to kill, don’t mess with the children“Abril rebukes. Heartbroken, Pérez agrees that they live”in panic“.”We are not guilty of this war“he weighs.
