Let’s talk about something deeply troubling yet important happening right now in Colombia. Imagine a border region torn apart by fierce violence, where at least 80 people have lost their lives and over 11,000 have been driven from their homes. This is the grim reality in Catatumbo, a northeastern region bordering Venezuela. What’s happening here is not just a local dispute or a one-off conflict; it’s a bitter collision of armed groups vying for power, control, and survival amid decades-long turmoil. The situation also threatens to derail Colombia’s aspirations for peace, symbolizing a deep, painful regression from the country’s progress in recent years. Let’s dig into how we got here—and why it matters so much.
A Land of Coca and Conflict: The Bigger Picture
Catatumbo is no stranger to violence. Its vast stretches of coca fields—the raw material for cocaine production—have long made it a hotbed for criminal activity and competing armed groups. Among these are the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the 33rd Front, a faction of former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters. According to Colombian military officials, these two groups had maintained an uneasy truce in the region. However, that fragile peace disintegrated just last week, plunging Catatumbo into chaos. The scale and intensity of the clashes are staggering, with even door-to-door executions reported. Armed fighters carrying lists of names have been systematically targeting suspected members of rival groups, an act described by officials as a meticulously planned criminal operation.
The unfolding violence is undeniably tied to Colombia’s complex—and deeply fractured—history of conflict. For decades, the country endured a bloody internal war involving left-wing guerrillas (like the FARC), paramilitary forces, and government militaries, each fighting for dominance over land and resources. Among these coveted resources was the lucrative narcotrafficking trade, which fueled much of the conflict.
A fraught peace deal in 2016 brought hope. The FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group at the time, agreed to lay down arms in a historic accord. Thousands of fighters left the battlefield, and for a moment, there was optimism—an almost unimaginable dream of a Colombia where violence didn’t define daily life. But like any attempt to shed the scars of prolonged war, the process proved far messier than imagined. Other rebel groups, like the ELN, refused to disarm, while new factions splintered off—sometimes even formed by former FARC members themselves. These myriad groups have battled to fill the territorial and economic vacuum left by the FARC’s dissolution.
Unfortunately, Catatumbo represents much of what went wrong post-2016. Instead of peace, it became a battleground for the remnants and reconstituted factions of Colombia’s long insurgency. The feuding groups now control swathes of coca-rich territory, perpetuating cycles of violence that leave civilians caught in the crossfire.
An Eroding Dream of Total Peace
Enter Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, who took office with an ambitious agenda for “total peace.” For Petro, the promise wasn’t just about halting gunfire but about addressing root causes—poverty, inequality, and the outlawed industries that fuel violence. His presidency marked a sharp shift in tone and tactics, as he pledged to negotiate with armed groups to bring an end to the country’s many conflicts.
But less than two years into his four-year term, Catatumbo is a stark reminder of just how precarious that dream remains. Petro himself visited the region, vowing support for the displaced and pledging military and humanitarian aid. Still, his administration faces enormous challenges. The unchecked violence has already forced him to suspend ongoing peace talks with the ELN—a devastating blow to his broader peace agenda.
General Luis Emilio Cardozo, head of the Colombian army, provided chilling details of the situation on the ground. He described not only gun battles but a broader collapse of any semblance of order. In a twist of tragic irony, some Colombians in Catatumbo have been crossing into Venezuela to seek refuge—a country mired in its own humanitarian crisis. There, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has promised to send aid to Colombian refugees. However, tensions between Petro and Maduro, once allies in leftist politics, have escalated recently due to disagreements over governance and human rights.
Echoes of Violence Across Colombia
What’s happening in Catatumbo is not just an isolated incident but part of a broader deterioration in Colombia’s security landscape. Over the weekend, another conflict broke out between rival factions of former FARC fighters, this time in the Guaviare department—a region in southern Colombia that’s also grappling with the consequences of drug-fueled violence. Elizabeth Dickinson, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, issued a sobering warning. She described Colombia’s current state as being at “a very dangerous inflection point,” with violence escalating across multiple regions simultaneously. Her observations are especially grim for Guaviare, where armed groups continue to recruit children into their ranks, deepening the humanitarian toll of an already devastating conflict.
These warnings are not new. Organizations like the International Crisis Group and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been sounding the alarm for years, noting that Colombia’s fragile peace could unravel at any moment. With multiple armed conflicts now active within the country, those warnings seem to have become a grim reality.
A Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds
As fighting continues, the human toll has been catastrophic. Families have been torn from their homes, taking refuge in places like a sports stadium in Cúcuta—a border town that’s been an entry point for Venezuelan migrants fleeing their own country’s turmoil. Within four days, over 11,000 people—many of them children—had been displaced from Catatumbo alone. Iris Marin, the country’s ombudsman, lamented that these events marked one of the region’s gravest humanitarian crises in history.
Marin called on the leaders of the armed groups to stop the suffering, emphasizing that just a few individuals had the power to end the violence. But such appeals often fall on deaf ears in a conflict where power struggles and economic incentives like the cocaine trade outweigh human cost.
A Frayed Relationship with Venezuela
Adding another layer of complexity is Colombia’s deteriorating relationship with its neighbor, Venezuela. Just two years ago, Gustavo Petro and Nicolás Maduro were seen shaking hands, promising cooperation and improved diplomacy between their two nations. Both leaders identify as leftists, but their recent interactions have been anything but cordial. Petro has openly criticized Maduro for jailing political opponents and tampering with election outcomes, a stance that has strained their relations. Meanwhile, Maduro has accused Petro of meddling in Venezuela’s internal politics, exacerbating tensions at a time when regional stability hangs by a thread.
What Lies Ahead
The current situation in Colombia is a tragic paradox. On one hand, the 2016 peace deal marked one of the most hopeful turning points in the nation’s history. On the other, the years since have exposed just how fragile peace can be without systemic change and absolute commitment from all sides. For all his ambitious rhetoric, Petro faces one of the toughest challenges in Colombian history: how to broker peace with groups that thrive in lawlessness, all while addressing the deep social and economic disparities fueling the conflict.
With Catatumbo burning and other regions falling into separate clashes, Colombia teeters on the edge of an abyss. The language of peace sounds increasingly hollow against the roar of gunfire. One thing is clear, though: without focused, unified efforts—both locally and internationally—to address the humanitarian and systemic issues at play, Colombia risks sliding backward into its violent past.
