At least 80 dead in Colombia amid new surge in violence

At least 80 people have died and more than 11,000 have been forced to flee their homes in Colombia, officials say, amid fierce clashes between two rival armed groups on the border with Venezuela.

The violence, in a northeastern region called Catatumbo, is one of the worst that the country has suffered in recent years, raising concerns that the country is moving in the opposite direction of “total peace” – a goal made a priority from the left of the country. president, Gustavo Petro, who is more than halfway through his four-year term.

The Colombian leader visited the region on Friday, writing that on X that his government “stands with the people of Catatumbo”. It also sent troops and humanitarian assistance.

Displaced families are taking refuge in a stadium in Cúcuta, a border city best known in recent years for receiving Venezuelan migrants. In some places, Colombians are fleeing to Venezuela — home to its own humanitarian crisis — and Venezuela’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, has promised to send them aid.

The clashes in Catatumbo are a stark departure from the hope that swept parts of Colombia less than a decade ago, when the country signed a peace deal with its largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The nation had suffered for decades of internal conflict, with left-wing guerrilla groups, including the FARC; paramilitary organizations, and the government fighting for control of the country and for lucrative industries such as narcotrafficking.

Thousands of FARC fighters laid down their arms in the 2016 agreement, and at the time it felt like a seismic moment for one of the world’s most violent countries. But old rebel groups, including the National Liberation Army, or ELN, persist, while new ones emerge, all struggle for control of territory and industry left by the FARC.

In some cases, these new groups are made up of former FARC fighters, and they have split and divided, helping to fuel an increasingly complicated conflict.

Catatumbo is home to vast fields of coca, the plant that is a basic product in cocaine. Two groups control the territory, the ELN and a group of former FARC members called the 33rd Front, said General Luis Emilio Cardozo, the head of the Colombian army. talk to reporters during the weekend.

A precarious peace between the two groups broke down last week. General Cardozo said there have been four or five clashes between the groups in recent days, and in other cases armed fighters went door to door, targeting former FARC fighters suspected of being part of the 33rd Front .

“It was a very well-planned criminal operation,” he said, “he went with a list in hand looking for people he wanted to kill.

In response to the violence, Mr. Petro suspended ongoing peace talks with the ELN.

With the military distracted, a separate conflict has erupted in recent days between two former FARC groups in Guaviare, a department in the south-central part of Colombia. according to the country’s ombudsman’s office.

Organizations including the International Crisis Group have warned for years that the country’s security situation has deteriorated since 2016, and could erupt into violence at any time.

“We are very concerned that the moment is now,” said Elizabeth Dickinsona Colombia-based analyst for the non-profit organization. “Escalations on various front lines have brought the conflict to a very dangerous tipping point.”

Ms. Dickinson called the scale of the conflict in Guaviare “very significant,” and said it had the potential to spread to several departments in southern Colombia. She added that there are “many children” in the ranks of the armed groups in that region.

The clashes in Catatumbo, in the north, on the border with Venezuela, come amid growing tension between Mr. Petro and Mr. Maduro, who has provided a safe haven to ELN members.

Mr. Petro and Mr. Maduro call themselves leftists, and just two years agothe two shook hands in Caracas and promised more productive relations.

But Mr. Petro has become more critical of the autocrat in recent weeks, berating him for shutting down political opponents and refusing to release the results of a recent presidential vote that Mr. Maduro claimed to have won, but that many countries agree that it was actually won by an opposition leader.

This provoked the anger of Mr. Maduro, who accused Mr. Petro and other leaders of meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said last year it was monitoring eight different armed conflicts in Colombia.

Sunday evening, the country’s ombudsman, Iris Marin, said 11,000 people had been moved to Catutumbo in just four days, including many children. William Villamizar, the governor of Northern Santander, a border department, said the death toll had risen to more than 80 people.

Ms Marin said the violence was “one of the biggest and most serious humanitarian crises that Catatumbo has faced, if not the worst”.

She blamed the conflict on “a few people” in the region and called for it to end. “Those few people have the ability to stop suffering.”

Federico Rios contributed to the report.