The government has declared a “state of internal commotion” in response to the worst humanitarian crisis in decades

ON JANUARY 16TH violence erupted in Catatumbo on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. Colombia’s oldest active guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), began attacking dissidents of the now-extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). At least 80 are dead, though locals estimate the true number to be in the hundreds.

Residents report fighters going door-to-door, assassinating community leaders and former FARC members who demobilised under a peace deal in 2016. The scale and brutality of the onslaught and the fact that the ELN attacked civilians were a surprise, says Antonio Sanguino, a former senator from Catatumbo.

More than 50,000 residents have been displaced, the largest forced movement of people in Colombia since records began in 1997, according to Iris Marín, Colombia’s ombudsman for human rights. Almost half have sought refuge in Cúcuta. Many others have escaped into poverty-stricken Venezuela. The army has been sent in to rescue the thousands still trapped in their homes.

The violence underscores the ELN’s control of the region. It is a blow to President Gustavo Petro’s policy of “total peace”. The government had been in talks with FARC dissidents and the ELN. On January 17th Mr Petro suspended peace talks with the ELN and accused the group of committing war crimes. On January 24th the army launched an operation against it.

The fighting has raised tensions with Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro allows the ELN to operate. His regime profits from the drug trafficking that funds the ELN’s warmongering. The group has been able to move reinforcements into Catatumbo, probably through Venezuela.

Mr Petro has declared a “state of internal commotion” in Catatumbo and a neighbouring department for the first time since 2008. The measure, subject to review by Colombia’s constitutional court, allows the executive to pass security laws and impose taxes by decree for 90 days. Colombia’s government says the violence was not foreseeable, despite the fact that Ms Marín and human-rights groups warned repeatedly about exactly this possibility.

Like much of Colombia, Catatumbo needs both force and money from the state to reduce its dependence on illicit trades. Criminal groups have long fought for control of the region, where some 17% of Colombia’s coca leaf is grown. Mr Petro knows this. In 2022 his government agreed to build roads and schools, and pay campesinos (smallholder farmers) in Catatumbo to switch from coca to crops such as cacao.

No payments, roads or schools have materialised. “Petro has made a fool of the campesinos,” says a community leader from the small town of El Tarra, who is now sheltering in Cúcuta.