In a March 11 statement addressed to members of the U.S. Congress, the Catatumbo Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Working Group explains the context of the ongoing violence being experienced in the Catatumbo region—located in the North Santander department, which borders Venezuela. The Working Group has closely monitored the 2016 peace accord’s implementation, and alongside the Catholic Church and other sectors of civil society, has continuously appealed to the Colombian government to advance a direly needed humanitarian accord in Catatumbo.
The national government’s strategy to deploy more than 10,000 soldiers in the area and to institute Catatumbo as a Zona Futuro, has not provided opportune and effective responses. On the contrary, it has contributed to persistently high rates of violent actions against the civilian population, as evidenced by the increase in numbers of homicide, forced recruitment of minors, and sexual violence; as well as the expansion of paramilitary structures, and according to 2020 figures: 6 massacres, 17 social leader and former combatant homicides, 1,180 internally displaced persons, and 33,627 confined persons. Likewise, there are records of 5 extrajudicial executions by the public force in the framework of forced illicit crop eradication operations and the reinforcement of the presence of paramilitary groups such as the Autodefensas Gaitanistas in Tibú and the metropolitan area of Cúcuta.
The Working Group also invites U.S. Congressional offices to an event to be hosted by WOLA, alongside the affected communities and the Catholic Church, on Wednesday, April 7th at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The event seeks to help the international community understand the dynamics of conflict in Catatumbo and the true state of the 2016 peace accord’s implementation.
The Working Group requests U.S. congressional support for the humanitarian agreement to help shield the civilian population from ongoing conflict. Likewise, the Working Group requests U.S. aid and assistance before the Colombian Government to carry out concrete actions to increase the urgent humanitarian development needed.
Read the full, English statement here.
Read the original, Spanish statement here.
March 11, 2021