Development: On 22 April, some 6,000 inhabitants of the Catatumbo geographical region in north-eastern Colombia demonstrated against a violent turf war for control of coca crops and drug trafficking routes in the area.
Significance: Nearly 5,000 people have been displaced in Catatumbo as a result of violent confrontations between guerrillas in the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and fighters in the illegal armed group 'Los Pelusos' (formerly the Ejército Popular de Liberación [EPL] guerrilla group), which have raged for the last 40 days.
- The large protest march set out from the municipality of Ocaña, traversing 80km through the epicentre of the conflict between the two groups to the municipality of El Tarra, where they held a community assembly. Local farmers and officials from the national ombudsman’s office and international organisations also gathered to take part in the so-called ‘caravan for life and peace’.
- The demonstrators marched in defiance of an ‘armed strike’ declared on 15 April by the EPL, ordering local inhabitants to stay inside their houses or risk being caught in the crossfire. The community assembly issued a statement demanding a negotiated end to the violence in Catatumbo, located in the department of Norte de Santander.
- The ELN and EPL are fighting for control of around 25,000 hectares of coca plantations, and drug trafficking routes into Venezuela, which borders Catatumbo, especially territory previously controlled by the now-demobilised Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerillas. The clashes followed the violent breakdown of a meeting between leaders of the ELN and EPL last month in the local municipality of Teorama.
- The Colombian army and the police are providing food and blankets to eight humanitarian refuges where some 1,249 families have gathered to flee the violence in the Catatumbo. As many as 144,000 local inhabitants face serious restrictions on movement and, as a consequence, access to basic goods.
Looking Ahead: Vice President Oscar Naranjo and the interior minister, Guillermo Rivera, are visiting Catatumbo over the course of the next few days to evaluate the situation. The demonstrators are demanding a response from the authorities to their plight by tomorrow (24 April).
