Rebel violence kills 60 people in Catatumbo

The country’s human rights office has said that the number of people who have been killed by terrorists in the Catatumbo region of Colombia has reached 60.

Rival groups have been fighting for control of the cocaine trade in the region – which is near the border with Venezuela – for years.

The Ombudsman’s office said the latest violence involved the National Liberation Army (ELN) – the largest armed group still active in Colombia – and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.

The attack disrupted the relationship between the rebel groups, who had been negotiating peacefully with the government.

The Office of the Ombudsman, a government agency that oversees the protection of human rights and civil liberties, earlier reported that 40 people had died in the violence.

It said many people, including community leaders and their families, face a “particular risk” of being abducted or killed at the hands of the ELN. It also said that recently 20 people had been kidnapped, and half of them were women.

The office said that among those killed were those who signed the peace agreement and Carmelo Guerrero, the leader of the Association for Peasant Unity in Catatumbo (Asuncat), a grassroots rights group.

Asuncat wrote on social media on Friday that Roger Quintero and Freiman Velasquez, members of the board of directors, have not been seen since the previous day, and they suspect that the armed forces have taken them.

“In some parts of the region, hunger has started to be felt, affecting the local population,” the Ombudsman’s office wrote in a statement on Saturday, adding that thousands of people are believed to have fled the violence.

“The elderly, children, young people, pregnant women and the disabled are suffering from the consequences of these events.”

“Catatumbo is once again stained with blood,” the Association of Mothers of Catatumbo for Peace wrote on Friday.

“Military bullets not only hurt those who are armed, they also shatter the dreams of our communities, break up families and plant fear in the ears of our children.”

The Ombudsman’s office appears to be blaming the recent violence on the ELN, which had been in peace talks with the Colombian government until they were suspended on Friday due to violence in Catatumbo.

President Gustavo Petro – who since his election in 2022 has sought to end violence between armed groups in the country – accused the ELN of “war crimes” and said the group “has no interest in establishing peace”.

The ELN accused Farc of starting the war by killing civilians in a statement on Saturday, according to Reuters. Farc has not publicly responded to these statements.

On Saturday, the Colombian army announced that it was sending additional troops to the region in an effort to restore peace.