Failed peace talks leave at least 80 dead in northeastern Colombia, officials say
A Colombian official said more than 80 people died in the country’s northeast over the weekend as the government’s attempts to negotiate peace with the National Liberation Army failed.
Colombian troops scrambled to evacuate people on Sunday as the violence forced thousands to flee and injured 20 others, according to William Villamizal, the governor of Norte Santander province, where many killings have occurred.
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The victims included community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people seeking to sign the peace agreement, according to a report released late Saturday by a government watchdog.
Officials said the attacks took place in several towns in the Catatumbo region near the Venezuelan border and at least three people taking part in peace talks were kidnapped.
People displaced by violence in towns across the Catatumbo region queue to register for asylum at a stadium in Cucuta, Colombia, where National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels clashed with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Sunday 19th. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Thousands of people are fleeing the area, some hiding in nearby dense mountains or seeking help in government shelters.
“We were caught in the crossfire,” said Juan Gutiérrez, who with his family was forced to leave their animals and belongings behind and flee to a makeshift shelter in Tibu. “We don’t have time to get things… I hope the government remembers us… We are helpless here.”
Colombian troops rescued dozens of people on Sunday, including a family and their pet dog whose owner placed a pack of cold water on the animal’s chest to keep it cool as they were evacuated by helicopter.
Defense Minister Ivan Velazquez traveled to the northeastern town of Cúcuta on Sunday, where he held several security meetings and urged armed groups to demobilize.
“The first priority is saving lives and keeping communities safe,” he said. “We have deployed our forces throughout the region.”
Officials are also preparing to send 10 tons of food and hygiene supplies to some 5,000 people in the communities of Okanha and Tibu, most of whom have fled the violence.
“Catatumbo needs help,” Villamiza said in a public address on Saturday. “Boys, girls, young men, teenagers, whole families showed up, nothing, on trucks, dump trucks, motorcycles, doing whatever they could, on foot, to avoid becoming victims of this confrontation.”
The attack came 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 demanded that the ELN cease all attacks and allow authorities access to the area and provide humanitarian aid.
“Displacement is killing us in the region,” said José Trinidad, a municipal official in the town of Convención in the Norte Santander region. “We are worried that the crisis will worsen.”
Trinidad called on rebel groups to sit down and hammer out a new deal 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 (FARC), a guerrilla group that disbanded after signing a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016. The two countries are vying for control of a strategic border region that hosts coca leaf plantations.
The ELN said in a statement on Saturday that it had warned former FARC members that if they “continue to attack the population… there will be no way out but armed confrontation”. The ELN accuses former FARC rebels of numerous killings in the region, including the Jan. 15 killing of a couple and their 9-month-old baby.
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Army commander Gen. Luis Emilio Cardoso Santamaria said on Saturday that authorities were reinforcing the humanitarian corridor between Tibou and Cucuta to allow safe passage for people forced to flee their homes. He said special urban forces were also deployed to urban capitals where “there are risks and a lot of fear”.
The ELN has tried five times to negotiate a peace deal with President Gustavo Petro’s government, but talks have failed due to violence. The ELN’s demands include treating it as a political rebel group, which critics say is risky.
