Officials say some 60 people killed in northeast Colombia as peace talks fail

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Officials in Colombia say about 60 people have been killed in the country’s northeast region following failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army.

Among those killed are 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.

Hundreds of people are fleeing the area, with some hiding in the nearby lush mountains. Colombia’s government has demanded that the National Liberation Army, known as ELN, cease all attacks and allow authorities to enter the region and provide humanitarian aid.

The attack comes after Colombia suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army on Friday, the second time it has done so in less than a year.

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 2017 with Colombia’s government. The two are fighting over control of a strategic border region that has coca leaf plantations.

The ELN said in a statement Saturday that 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 Jan. 15 slaying of a couple and their 9-month-old baby.

Colombia’s army said Sunday that it rescued a local community leader and a relative that the ELN was persecuting, but dozens more awaited rescue.

Defense Minister Iván Velásquez was scheduled to travel to the northeast town of Cúcuta 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.

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 recognized as a political rebel organization, which critics have said is risky.