Colombia to declare ‘state of emergency’ as violence in northern regions spikes

21 January 2025, 00:44

Colombia Killings
Colombia Killings. Picture: PA

Guerrilla attacks in the country’s northeast have killed dozens and forced thousands of people flee their homes.

Colombian president Gustavo Petro said he will declare a state of emergency, following a spate of guerrilla attacks in the country’s northeast that has killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes.

In a message posted to X on Monday, Mr Petro said he would “declare a state of internal commotion,” a measure that enables the executive branch to pass certain kinds of legislation without congressional approval for three months.

The measure will go into effect after a decree is signed by the President and his Cabinet, but it can also be invalidated by Colombia’s constitutional court.

Internal commotion decrees were used in the early 2000s by the administration of then-President Alvaro Uribe to increase financing for the military through a special war tax.

Colombia Petro
FILE – Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech in 2024. (Fernando Vergara, File/AP)

According to Colombia’s constitution, this emergency measure cannot be used to suspend Congress or eliminate civil rights.

“I hope the judicial system supports us,” Mr Petro wrote on X.

Earlier on Monday Mr Petro had warned that his nation’s military will take offensive actions against the National Liberation Army after the rebels, known as the ELN, unleashed a wave of attacks in Colombia’s Catatumbo region, in which at least 80 people have been killed.

“The ELN has chosen the path of war, and that’s what they will get,” Mr Petro wrote in a message on X, in which he accused the rebels of turning into a drug trafficking group and compared their methods to those of Pablo Escobar, the infamous cartel leader who bombed government buildings and murdered his enemies by hiring hundreds of hitmen.

Mr Petro, who was a member of a guerrilla group during his youth, initiated peace talks with the ELN in 2022, after promising in his presidential campaign that he could get the rebels to demobilise within three months of taking office.

However, talks have stalled over multiple disagreements about how the rebels would disarm and the kinds of economic reforms that the government would implement in exchange for their disarmament.

The ELN has also criticised the government for staging separate negotiations with a breakout group in the country’s southwest and angered officials by continuing to kidnap civilians and extort businesses.

On Friday, Mr Petro suspended negotiations with the rebels after violence escalated in Catatumbo, a mountainous region that produces around 15% of Colombia’s coca crop and is located along the border with Venezuela.

The ELN, which has an estimated 6,000 fighters, reportedly attacked civilians it accused of being collaborators of a rival group, the FARC-EMC, taking people from their homes and shooting them in the streets, while in rural areas firefights broke out between members of both groups.

In a statement issued on Monday ELN leader Antonio Garcia said that his organisation does not intend to target civilians, but has been going after former rebel fighters who are now collaborating with the FARC-EMC.

Colombia Killings
People displaced by violence in northern Colombia, where rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fernando Vergara/AP)

Over the weekend, however, thousands of people fled towns in the Catatumbo region, fearing for their lives, including community leaders who had been threatened by the ELN.

Among those fleeing were former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who demobilised in a 2016 peace deal with the government, and have now been targeted by the ELN.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Colombia said on Monday that the new wave of violence in Catatumbo has displaced 18,300 people, who are staying in shelters and hotels in the cities of Tibu, Ocana and Cucuta, where officials have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis.

Sandra Tijaro, a farmer in northeastern Colombia, said in an interview she fled her village on Friday after armed men showed up and told everyone to evacuate. She is now staying with her children at a shelter in Tibu.

“We want the armed groups to think about the welfare of rural folks,” she said. “We are hard-working people who end up carrying the burden of this conflict.”

The 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia led to the demobilisation of 11,000 fighters.

However, it left a power vacuum in some rural areas that smaller rebel groups have tried to fill, with the government struggling to reduce violence against civilians.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

The damaged shield

'Risk of radioactive leak' after Russian 'high explosive' drone hits Chernobyl, causing 'significant damage'

The woman was attacked by a shark

Horror as woman loses both hands after being mauled by shark as husband desperately fights it off

United States Vice-President JD Vance, second right, meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, third left, during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Munich

'Putin is a liar': Zelenskyy's warning to Trump as Ukraine's leader voices concern over 'risky' phone calls with Russia

JD Vance

Free speech is 'in retreat' across Europe, claims JD Vance - as US brands it a 'bigger threat than Russia'

Hostages (L-R) Sasha Trufanov, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Yair Horn,

Hamas confirms names of Israeli hostages due for release on Saturday

Danielle McLaughlin's killer Baghat was finally found guilty today

Indian man is found guilty of raping and murdering Irish backpacker Danielle McLaughlin in a field in Goa

Starmer welcomes Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, to Downing Street

Starmer tells Zelenskyy Ukraine remains on 'irreversible path to NATO membership' as leaders share phone call

Kayaker Adrian Simancas after being briefly swallowed by a humpback whale

Kayaker breaks silence over 'terrifying' moment he was swallowed whole by humpback whale - then spat back out

Pope Francis

Pope Francis to be admitted to hospital for bronchitis treatment

One Briton has died in a car crash in New Zealand

One Brit dead and three fighting for lives after car crashes into tourists’ hired bikes in New Zealand

A drone hit the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine

Russian 'high explosive' drone hits Chernobyl causing 'significant damage' to shelter protecting world from radiation

JD Vance has warned the US could take military action against Russia.

US threatens Russia with military action if Ukraine peace talks fail as Putin hits Chernobyl with 'high-explosive warhead'

Donald Trump has been accused of 'appeasement'

Ukraine’s future at stake as world leaders gather in Munich - with Trump accused of ‘appeasing’ Putin

Near-Earth asteroid, artwork

NASA scientist reveals list of countries that face being hit by huge 'city killer' asteroid the size of Big Ben

This illustrative image shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and United States President Donald Trump (right).

Donald Trump is 'setting preconditions for withdrawing from NATO', his former advisor tells LBC

Naya Rivera

Glee star Naya Rivera's heartbreaking final words to her son before she drowned revealed