Colombian Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez said on Sunday that the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas have been targeting community leaders and ex-members of another rebel group in Colombia’s northeastern Catatumbo region, where escalating violence has claimed 80 lives.
The rebel violence in Colombia – the bloodiest in recent years – last week led President Gustavo Petro to accuse the ELN of committing a war crime and suspend peace talks with the group.
The ELN has launched an offensive against former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who demobilized under a 2016 peace deal, their families and some community leaders, Velasquez said.
Colombian rebel groups have historically fought the government, right-wing paramilitary organizations and each other for control of territory and illegal income sources like drug trafficking.
Armed groups also often target civilians who oppose their activities.
Thousands Displaced
Velasquez said 8,000 people had been displaced by fighting.
Though he gave a toll of 60, the Governor’s office in Norte de Santander province and the human rights ombudsman said the toll was 80.
The ELN said in a Sunday statement that the demobilized FARC rebels had returned to arms and that the victims were not civilians.
Drug Corridor
The Catatumbo region is considered strategic for drug trafficking because of its proximity to Venezuela, from where illegal armed groups export cocaine, security sources have said.
Since 2022, Petro’s government has pursued peace negotiations with leftist guerrillas and criminal gangs founded by former right-wing paramilitaries, in a bid to end Colombia’s internal conflict.
Decades Of Fighting
Six decades of fighting in the Andean country has killed at least 450,000 people.
The ombudsman’s office warned that many social leaders and their families are at risk of being kidnapped or killed for opposing the ELN.
It called on the ELN and other armed groups to allow humanitarian aid into the area and to “end all attacks against the civilian population.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
