The Colombian military over the weekend deployed hundreds of additional special forces soldiers to the volatile Catatumbo region in the northern portion of the northeastern department of Norte de Santander in response to intense fighting between the National Liberation Army (Spanish abbr: ELN) and the Central General Staff, a confederation of Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (Spanish abbr: EMC) dissidents in the department.
The fighting erupted last Thursday when ELN fighters began going house to house in the rural municipalities of Tibu, El Tarra and Teorama searching for FARC members who had signed peace agreements with the government.
The governor of Norte de Santander, William Villamizar, reported on Sunday that the fighting had killed at least 80 civilians, wounded 20 and displaced more than 11,000.
The intense fighting has forced many businesses and schools in the region to shutter their doors.
Much of the violence has been attributed to a fight for territory between the ELN’s Northeastern War Front (Spanish abbr: FGN) and the EMC’s 33rd Front, both of which are based in Norte de Santander.
The 33rd Front is part of a coalition of EMC factions currently engaged in peace talks with the government.
In response, President Gustavo Petro announced on Friday that he would suspend peace talks with the ELN, claiming the group does not desire peace and ascribing their actions in Catatumbo to war crimes.
The government and ELN leaders were scheduled to meet this week to discuss resuming negotiations.
This is the second time Petro has suspended peace talks with the leftist guerilla group.
Petro suspended peace talks with the ELN on 18 September following the group’s attack the day before on a military base in the eastern department of Arauca.
The attack in the small town of Puerto Jordan involved ELN guerillas firing homemade mortars from the back of a dump truck parked near the installation.
Two soldiers were killed and 25 wounded.
Overland travel just about anywhere in Norte de Santander is extraordinarily dangerous.
The owner of a local funeral home, his wife and their nine-month-old son were gunned down last Wednesday evening as they drove in Catatumbo.
The family was traveling on a rural highway between the municipality of Tibu and the city of Cucuta when they were ambushed by several gunmen.
Cucuta, the capital of Norte de Santander, is located adjacent to the international border with Venezuela.
The couple’s ten-year-old son managed to escape. He was rescued by locals who took him to a nearby hospital.
Though no group has claimed responsibility, the ELN, the EMC, the Clan del Golfo (Spanish abbr: AGC) organized crime syndicate and numerous lower-level criminal gangs are active in Catatumbo.
Some reports suggested the family may have encountered an illegal checkpoint set up on the Tibu-Cucuta highway by AGC members searching for rivals. When the family failed to stop, the gunmen opened fire.
The area where the attack occurred is known to be strategically vital for the production of coca, the precursor to cocaine, with territorial clashes between the ELN, FARC dissidents and AGC common.
The following afternoon, two police officers were wounded when an assailant threw an explosive device at their pickup truck in a rural area in Cucuta.
A specialized bomb disposal unit from the Colombian army on 6 January deactivated a large improvised explosive device placed on a rural highway in the municipality of Santiago in Norte de Santander.
The bomb, which contained more than 88 pounds of explosive material, was reportedly placed on a stretch of road which connects Santiago with Cucuta.
The roadside bomb was believed to have been planted by the ELN in an attempt to attack military and police forces who routinely patrol the area.
A roadside bomb detonated at 0730 on 22 December as a military convoy was passing on the Cucuta-Tibu highway.
Four soldiers were wounded in the blast, which also damaged armored vehicles and left a large crater in the road, rendering the highway impassable.
The improvised explosive device was reportedly detonated by a handheld remote control.
At 2000 on 20 December, a motorcycle police officer was killed and two others wounded after an assailant threw a grenade at them while on patrol in the township of El Zulia, just outside of Cucuta. The attack was viewed as a reprisal for the earlier capture of an ELN leader in the area.
The ELN is believed to be behind a motorcycle bomb attack just after midnight on 4 December at a toll booth in the municipality of Pamplonita in Norte de Santander.
Two assailants reportedly abandoned a motorcycle laden with explosives near transit police officers working at the toll booth on the Cucuta-Pamplona highway (National Route 55), which connects Pamplonita with Cucuta.
The two assailants fled on a second motorcycle before the explosion.
The blast wounded three people and seriously damaged the toll booth.
The ELN may also be responsible for a bomb attack that same day on a military patrol in central Cucuta.
An improvised explosive device detonated on a road just as a military convoy was passing by.
No injuries were reported.
In addition to attacks on security forces, the ELN is considered one of the most prolific kidnapping bands in the country.
The group is historically not averse to abducting foreigners.
Cucuta, the capital of Norte de Santander, should be visited only on essential business. The Catatumbo region of Norte de Santander should be completely off-limits.
Travel to rural areas in which the ELN are active should not be undertaken without fresh intelligence on routes and places to be visited and, in many cases, protective escorts.
The ELN is especially active in Norte de Santander, Santander, Arauca, Boyaca, Cesar, Bolivar, Antioquia and Choco departments in northern Colombia and Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Narino in the south.
See the country summary for further security recommendations.