Over 80 killed in northeast Colombia as peace talks fail: Officials

Among the victims were community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people who sought to sign a peace deal, according to a report that a government ombudsman agency released

Bogota (Colombia): More than 80 people have been killed in the country’s northeast region following failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said. Twenty others have been injured, according to William Villamizar, Governor of North Santander, where many of the killings occurred.

Among the victims were community leader Carmelo Guerrero and seven people who sought to sign a peace deal, according to a report that a government ombudsman agency released late Saturday. Officials said the attacks occurred in several towns located in the Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela, with at least three people who were part of the peace talks being kidnapped.

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Thousands of people were fleeing the area, with some hiding in the nearby lush mountains or seeking help at government shelters. Colombia’s army rescued dozens of people on Sunday, including a family and their pet dog, whose owner held a pack of cold water against the animal’s chest to keep it cool as they evacuated via helicopter.

Defence Minister Iván Velasquez traveled to the northeast town of Cúcuta on Sunday while officials prepared to send 10 tons of food and hygiene kits for approximately 5,000 people in the communities of Ocaña and Tibú, the majority of them having fled the violence. “Catatumbo needs help,” Villamizar said in a public address on Saturday.

“Boys, girls, young people, teenagers, entire families are showing up with nothing, riding trucks, dump trucks, motorcycles, whatever they can, on foot, to avoid being victims of this confrontation.” The attack comes after Colombia suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, on Friday, the second time it has done so in less than a year. Colombia’s government has demanded that the ELN cease all attacks and allow authorities to enter the region and provide humanitarian aid.

The ELN has been clashing in Catatumbo with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group that disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with Colombia’s government. The two are fighting over control of a strategic border region that has coca leaf plantations.

In a statement on Saturday, the ELN said it had warned former FARC members that if they “continued attacking the population…there was no other way out than armed confrontation”. The ELN accused ex-FARC rebels of several killings in the area, including the January 15 slaying of a couple and their 9-month-old baby.

Army commander Gen Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría said Saturday that authorities were reinforcing a humanitarian corridor between Tibú and Cúcuta for the safe passage of those forced to flee their homes. He said special urban troops also were deployed to municipal capitals “where there are risks and a lot of fear”.

The ELN has tried to negotiate a peace deal with the administration of President Gustavo Petro five times, with talks failing after bouts of violence. ELN demands include that it be recognised as a political rebel organisation, which critics have said is risky.