Residents of a violent province in northern Colombia are bracing for more bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spreads to the regional capital, in scenes not seen since the 1990s cartel unrest.
Cúcuta’s mayor imposed a 48-hour curfew to regain control of the city after the National Liberation Army (ELN) attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades, and destroyed toll booths with car bombs.
At least six people were injured as the Colombian army clashed with dozens of combatants.
The wave of violence is the latest blow to President Gustavo Petro’s failing efforts to bring peace to Colombia through dialogue with armed groups, and 122,000 people in northern Colombia now require immediate assistance, according to the humanitarian organization Project Hope.
“It’s extremely tense. “The police and military are on every corner, and everyone is in a state of panic because we’re all wondering where they’re going to bomb next,” said Beatriz Carvajal, a 50-year-old teacher in the regional capital, adding that businesses were closed, schools were closed, and the streets were eerily quiet.
“I am in a group with other teachers and none of us can remember anything like this since the 1990s when Pablo Escobar was blowing up whatever he wanted.”
The unrest began in the surrounding Catatumbo region in mid-January, when the ELN clashed with dissident factions of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), killing 80 people, displacing 50,000, and prompting Petro to declare a state of emergency and suspend fragile peace talks with the armed rebels.
Fighting also broke out in the Amazon rainforest at the other end of the country, killing 20 people, and the ELN placed thousands of Chocó residents on the Pacific coast under strict lockdown earlier this week.
The outbreaks of unrest in rural and urban areas hundreds of miles apart have contributed to a sense of loss of control that Colombia has not experienced in years.
More people have been displaced so far this year than in all of 2024.
“We cannot allow these terrorist actions to hold Cúcuta hostage,” the city’s mayor, Jorge Acevedo, said to local media. “This is about protecting our people and restoring order.”
Colombia signed a historic peace agreement with the Farc in 2016, officially ending six decades of conflict that killed 450,000 people and displaced millions more.
New armed groups have emerged to fill the void, and Petro’s efforts to bring peace by negotiating with all major armed factions have yielded little results.
Colombia’s rights ombudsman reported that the country’s armed factions increased from 141 in 2022 to 184 in 2024.
Cúcuta’s location on the lawless border with Venezuela has made it a hub for illicit activity. Around 25 groups compete for control over cocaine trafficking, contraband, and other criminal enterprises.
The escalating violence has fueled a growing humanitarian crisis, with a lack of water and healthcare, as well as concerns about the conditions in refugee camps where parasitic infection outbreaks have been reported.
“Violence has been relentless, and the humanitarian crisis has reached catastrophic levels,” said Mónica Hoyos, Project Hope’s program director in Colombia. “Hospitals are at a breaking point, facing critical shortages.”
