More than 100 deaths in five days and thousands of displaced people leave a violent escalation of rebels and drug traffickers in different parts of Colombia, in the midst of an intensifying armed conflict despite the peace efforts of Gustavo Petro’s government.
(Read more: Crisis in Catatumbo: Government focuses on sending aid and rescuing people)
The border with Venezuela, the southern Amazon and an area of northern Colombia are suffering from the offensive of organizations that are fighting for control of the territory and drug trafficking routes in the country that produces the most cocaine in the world. This Monday, The Ministry of Defense reported the death of 20 people in the Amazonian department of Guaviare (south) due to clashes between two enemy factions of the FARC dissidents.
Since Thursday, Colombia’s border with Venezuela has been on fire due to an attack by the ELN guerrilla against FARC dissidents and the civilian population. The prolonged onslaught, which recalls the worst times of the armed conflict, includes selective assassinations and combats with a balance of at least 80 dead and some 11,000 displaced people in this region plagued by drug crops and known as Catatumbo. And in the department of Bolívar (north), clashes between the ELN and the Clan del Golfo drug gang left nine dead, according to authorities reported on Friday.
The violence has put in check the peace commitment of the leftist Petro government with all the armed groups in Colombia. Since coming to power in 2022, he has been committed to a negotiated solution to six decades of armed conflict, but it is difficult to reach concrete agreements with guerrillas, gangs and drug trafficking groups. His opponents criticize him for being lenient towards the rebels and assure that the organizations have been strengthened under his mandate.
(Read more: Yellow alert declared after emission of ash from the Puracé volcano, in Cauca)
Displaced by conflict
Drama on the border
Due to the ELN attack, Petro ordered on Friday to suspend peace negotiations with that guerrilla, whom he accused of perpetrating “war crimes.” “The ELN (…) traveled towards the paths of Pablo Escobar, whom they chose as their permanent guide”the president wrote on the X network this Monday. “He has chosen the path of war and he will have war”he asserted.
Hundreds of people have fled to Venezuela, where the government activated a “special operation” to serve displaced people in two neighboring municipalities. Several surrounding towns such as Tibú welcome the thousands of people in improvised shelters guarded by the military. A person in charge of the forensic authority reported that the morgues in the department of Norte de Santander, where Catatumbo is located, are saturated in a “250%”. Authorities report that the bodies of the victims are decomposing.
The Public Force is focused on rescuing the population at risk to bring them to safety, although they announced a “second phase” in which they aspire to enter critical areas to repel the rebels. In helicopters, The Army has evacuated more than 230 peopleincluding children. More than 5,000 soldiers were deployed in Norte de Santander. In the capital, Cúcuta, the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, arrived on Sunday to lead the military offensive against the guerrillas. Petro was in the area on Friday, but avoided commenting on the humanitarian drama that worsens as the days go by.
Displaced by conflict
FARC Dissidents
In the southern Amazon, fighting in the municipality of Calamar broke out between men under the command of “Calarcá”head of a dissident group negotiating peace with the government, and of “Iván Mordisco”, a rebel leader whoo signed the historic 2016 agreement with the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
“There are 20 dead and the bodies were taken to the Villavicencio morgue”a nearby city, an official from the Ministry of Defense told AFP. Velásquez had told a local station that it was most likely that The deceased are members of the opposing dissident factions. Initially, “Iván Mordisco” He was leading the peace talks with the government, but his organization split in two.
“Nibble” closed all possibility of negotiation, while “Calarcá”, who was one of his trusted men, created an independent group that is still in talks with the leftist president. After that fracture, they became enemies and several territories in Colombia are disputed, including the Amazon, where thousands of hectares of coca are planted.
The peace agreement between the then government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC achieved that some 13,000 combatants and collaborators of the rebel group reintegrated into civilian life. Some of them took up arms and they organized with new recruits alleging breaches of the agreement, threats, lack of money and violence. In long decades of duration, the armed conflict leaves 9.5 million victims, most of them displaced.
(Read more: Crisis in Catatumbo: Government focuses on sending aid and rescuing people)
AFP
