BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s attorney general’s office on Wednesday reissued arrest warrants for leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, who had been participating in peace talks, as forced displacement caused by ELN attacks rose to 32,000 people.
A sharp uptick in violence over the past week in the Catatumbo region, an area along the eastern border with Venezuela considered strategic for drug trafficking, has thrown an already-fraught effort by President Gustavo Petro to end six decades of war into crisis and caused the most pronounced humanitarian catastrophe in Colombia in recent years.
Petro, who promised peace and surrender deals to stop a conflict which has killed at least 450,000, suspended talks with the ELN on Friday over their attacks against a fellow rebel group, demobilized former fighters and civilian community leaders.
The suspension means his administration will now only potentially ink deals with a small group of rebel and gang organizations, whose members make up just 10% of the rank and file of Colombian armed groups.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement it was “revoking the benefits of suspended arrest warrants for 31 representatives of (the ELN) … who had been recognized by the national government as spokespeople at negotiations.”
The ELN has said its offensive is against a faction of former FARC rebels, who rejected a 2016 peace deal but are currently in talks with the government, and demobilized rebels who support them. The ELN has denied attacking civilians.
“The crisis in Catatumbo continues. We have information about 32,000 displaced people,” human rights ombudsman Iris Marin said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Authorities said over the weekend 80 people had been killed. Marin said on Tuesday 35 bodies had been recovered and the armed forces were continuing evacuation measures.
Security sources say the ELN used its peace talks with Petro’s government to strengthen itself militarily and expand its territory.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Alison Williams)
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