President Gustavo Petro temporarily suspended the rule of law in response to an ELN offensive that has killed dozens and has displaced thousands in northwest Colombia since Friday.
Petro announced the three-month State of Exception on social media platform X without immediately specifying if the emergency measure applied to the entire country or only the Catatumbo where the ELN has been wreaking havoc.
ELN offensive in northeast Colombia: 80 killed, 11,000 displaced since Friday
According to the ELN’s Northeastern War Front, the offensive seeks to expel FARC dissident group EMB and their supporters from the region.
Social organizations have decried the assassination of demobilized former FARC guerrillas and at least one farmers rights defender.
The president said on X that he also declared an economic emergency.
The military takeover will always be carried out with the economic transformation of the regions under violence.
President Gustavo Petro
The state of exception gives Petro and the military far-reaching powers to confront security situations that threaten institutional stability, State security or peaceful coexistence.
Together with the economic emergency, the declared “State of Internal Commotion” allows the president to rule by decree without interference from Congress.
The state of exception additionally allows the president to suspend constitutional liberties like the freedom of assembly.
The exceptional measure can only be revoked by the Constitutional Court after a process that took months in the past.
Petro assumed the exceptional powers after a council of ministers that sought to formulate a response to the humanitarian crisis triggered by the ELN offensive in Catatumbo.
According to regional authorities, the ELN offensive cost the lives of more than 80 people.
The Ombudsman’s Office said earlier on Monday that more than 11,000 people from Catatumbo were forcibly displaced over the weekend.
The offensive is the most violent Colombia has seen since well before the start of a peace process with the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC in 2016.
