VOA News | Sunday, January 19, 2025 
80 killed in northeast Colombia as peace talks fail, official says

BOGOTÁ — More than 80 people have been killed in the country’s northeast region following failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said. Twenty others have been injured, according to William Villamizar, governor of North Santander, where many of the killings occurred. Among the victims 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. Thousands of people are fleeing the area, with some hiding in the nearby lush mountains or seeking help at government shelters. “Catatumbo needs help,” Villamizar said in a public address Saturday. “Boys, girls, young people, teenagers, entire families are showing up with nothing, riding trucks, dump trucks, motorcycles, whatever they can, on foot, to avoid being victims of this confrontation.” The attack comes after Colombia suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) on Friday, the second time it has done so in less than a year. Colombia’s government has demanded that the ELN cease all attacks and allow authorities to enter the region and provide humanitarian aid. 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 2016 with Colombia’s government. The two are fighting over control…Read more