Colombia’s president rejects emergency powers to restore order in the Cauca region, which has been hit by rebel fighting

President of Colombia He issued a decree on Friday, giving him emergency powers to restore order in a growing area of ​​Cauca on the border with Venezuela that has been brought together in recent days by a deadly turf war between splinter rebel groups.

President Gustavo Petro’s decree, which could be extended, gives him 90 days to impose a curfew, restrict traffic and take other steps that would violate Colombians’ civil rights or require congressional approval.

Official says at least 80 people have been killed in northeastern Colombia as peace talks fail.

This is the first time in more than a decade that a Colombian president has used such an extreme measure and underscores the seriousness of the current conflict in a country that has for decades been paralyzed by political violence.

However, it only applies to the rural Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela, where the Colombian state has struggled for decades to gain a foothold. In the past week, at least 80 people have been killed and an estimated 36,000 displaced as fighting intensifies between National Liberation Armyor ELN, and the denominations of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Police patrol in Tebo, Colombia, Tuesday, January 21, 2025, after guerrilla attacks that killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Petro’s conservative opponents criticized the move, accusing the former guerrilla of riding roughshod over the constitution. But some activists celebrated it, saying they hoped the move would translate into better infrastructure, health care and schools in the region where the law is traditionally not practiced.

“Why are the armed groups here? Because the last government did not invest. They abandoned us,” Jaime Botero, an activist in the town of Tipo, told The Associated Press.

Earlier this week, Petro reactivated arrest warrants against 31 top ELN leaders who had been suspended as part of an effort to lure the Cuban revolution-inspired insurgency into a peace deal to end its 60-year war against the state. Petro has suspended all peace talks, which have progressed slowly since he took office in 2022.

The ELN has traditionally controlled Catatumbo, but has lost ground to the FARC, a guerrilla group that was largely disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with the government.

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The current conflict is seeping across the border into Venezuela, where some of those fleeing the violence have taken refuge.

The whereabouts of the Eln Peace negotiations are unknown. But Cuba’s government said this week they are not there, leading some to speculate they may be hiding In Venezuelaand is one of the sponsors of Petro’s Peace Initiative with Eln.