Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that he was suspending peace negotiations with National Liberation Army guerrillas after a day of violence between armed groups in the northeast that left at least 30 people dead.
The violence took place in the Catatumbo region, on the border with Venezuela, where rival groups have for years been fighting for control of the cocaine trade.
The latest fighting pitted rebels from the left-wing National Liberation Army, or ELN — the biggest of the armed groups still active in Colombia — against dissidents from the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which signed a peace deal with the state in 2016 after more than 50 years of war.
Petro accused the ELN of committing “war crimes,” and said on a social network, “That is why we are suspending dialogue with this group, because the ELN shows no willingness to make peace.”
Colombia’s first left-wing president, Petro launched negotiations with the various armed groups that still control parts of Colombia after being elected in 2022 on a promise to pursue “total peace.”
The talks with the ELN broke down for several months last year after the group launched a deadly attack on a military base.
William Villamizar, governor of North Santander department, told Blu Radio the latest clashes between the ELN and FARC dissidents erupted on Thursday.
“Data from the field indicates at least 30 people killed and more than 20 injured,” he said, blaming the clashes on a “territorial dispute” linked to the cocaine trade.
Colombian ombudsman Iris Marin told Blu Radio that ELN members were attacking civilians, going “house to house” in the area around the town of Tibu in search of people it believed to be related to the FARC dissidents.
She said preliminary reports indicated that “dozens” of families had been displaced and more than 20 people were missing.
On Thursday, the United Nations reported that five former FARC combatants had been killed.
The deal with FARC aimed at ending the longest-running war in the Americas, involving leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug gangs and the military.
But holdout FARC splinter groups and the ELN refused to make peace.
In November the government and ELN agreed at talks in Venezuela to resume the peace process, but the military and the rebels have continued to trade fire.
Experts said the cocaine trade is at the heart of the unrest.
Tibu, scene of this week’s fighting, lies in one of the country’s biggest areas for the production of coca — the main ingredient in cocaine, of which Colombia is the world’s leading producer.
