Dozens dead and thousands displaced in Colombia due to clashes between armed groups

Colombia is experiencing days of terror. Clashes between armed groups have burned areas that are outside the control of the State. The main focus of violence is in the border region of Catatumbo, in the northeast of the country, where at the moment there are 80 dead and 11,000 displaced. Venezuela is receiving many of them. At the same time, in the southeast, in the department of Guaviare, a confrontation between FARC dissidents has left at least 20 people dead. “All measures are being studied to stop this, including decreeing [el estado de] the internal commotion,” reveals a source from the Casa de Nariño, the presidential residence.

Gustavo Petro tries to stop the wave of violence that has coincided with the beginning of the new year. The state of internal commotion would give the president powers to take exceptional measures, for a maximum of 90 days. As established by the Constitution, this state of emergency could be extended up to two times. Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador, has already declared internal commotion due to the wave of violence in his country. It was a way for the military to take control of citizen security. Petro also declared a state of exception due to the economic, social and ecological emergency in the department of La Guajira, but the Constitutional Court later annulled it.

The Colombian president now faces a gigantic challenge. At the beginning of his mandate he invited all armed groups to negotiate ceasefires and peace processes, but the tactic has not worked. None of these groups has been willing to lay down their weapons. The president now wants to show himself as the commander in chief of the Armed Forces and send a message of firmness. In his X account, Petro declared war on the guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), one of those responsible for the clashes in Catatumbo: “The ELN has chosen the path of war and will have war,” he indicated.

“It is up to the current army, the army of the Constitution, to save and protect the population of Catatumbo from the ELN, its murderer. “We, the Government, are on the side of the people,” the president said in a publication in which he assures that what happened in the northeast of the country “is nothing more than another demonstration of the transition from insurgent guerrillas to narco-armed organizations.” In the text, Petro reviews the transition of that guerrilla from what he defines as the theory of “effective love” of its founder, Camilo Torres, towards greed. “I always admired their principles, their revolutionary dedication, I think that ELN is dead,” concludes the president.

People flee from places of combat. After four years of massive flight of people, Venezuela is now receiving displaced Colombians. An unusual image. Colombians arrive in cars, trucks and on foot from the border areas, mainly from the binational region of Catatumbo. The displacement has intensified since Saturday, when images began to circulate of entire families with their belongings arriving at the town of Casigua El Cubo, capital of the municipality of Semprúm, in the State of Zulia, in Venezuela.

A statement from the Ombudsman’s Office indicates that in the Miravalle village, in the municipality of Calamar (Guaviare) and hundreds of kilometers south of Catatumbo, “clashes took place between structures of the so-called Amazonas Block, under the command of aliases Ivan Mordiscoand the Jhon Linares structure, of the Jorge Suárez Briceño bloc, of the so-called General Staff of the blocs, under the command of alias Calarca”. “A high number of dead and injured people are reported,” adds the text, which does not specify the number of deaths.

“We are terrified,” said the mayor of Calamar, Farid Camilo Castaño, in an interview given this Monday to Caracol News, in which he pointed out that the deceased belonged to the same dissident group, although it has not yet been possible to establish which one. “However, it is unknown if there were more fatalities, that the guerrilla structures had suddenly taken their bodies or collected them,” clarifies Castaño, who does not rule out that the fighting could generate massive displacements.

The Guaviare is in a state of defenselessness. “The department does not even have the capacity in Forensic Medicine to house all these corpses. We have had to go to the Meta department to provide us with support,” added the mayor. A few weeks ago, the police station was bombed with drones, and although Castaño highlights that “the public force is trying to do what it can,” the two battalions “fall short” to cover its almost 40 neighborhoods. The national government, however, has not commented. “It is time for us to set our eyes on Guaviare. What is happening today in the department is no different from what is happening in Santander and other departments,” adds the mayor.

Senator Humberto de la Calle, who was head of the negotiating team in the peace process with the extinct FARC guerrilla that led to the 2016 agreement, points out the same thing: “El Guaviare is as strategic as Catatumbo,” he noted. this Monday through a tweet. In that department, he says, “there are illicit crops, there is illegal mining of gold and coltan, it is the gateway to illegitimate entry into the Amazon with serious consequences of deforestation and encourages illegal trafficking to Brazil and, to the south, to the Pacific.”

However, it highlights the complexity that the Government faces in proceeding in this situation, since it is a fight between a dissident – that of alias Ivan Mordisco― in clear conflict with the State, and another that remains in dialogue with the Government ― that of alias Calarca―, with which a ceasefire remains in force. “Many times I questioned this,” De la Calle indicates in another tweet: “If two gangs confront each other, one of which is in a ceasefire with the State, how to proceed? Ally with one against the other? Serve only as a humanitarian arbiter? Fight both? (sic)”.