Colombia’s government on Saturday announced a roughly $700,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of four leaders of a rebel group, whose turf war with guerrilla dissidents in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela has left dozens of people dead.
A social media post from the Defense Ministry detailed the reward for the heads of the National Liberation Army, known by its Spanish language acronym ELN. The move followed President Gustavo Petro’s decision on Friday to issue a decree giving him emergency powers to restore order in the affected region, including through curfews and other steps that would normally violate Colombians’ civil rights or require congressional approval.
Those subject to the reward are Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista, Eliecer Herlinto Chamorro, Gustavo Aníbal Giraldo Quinchía and Israel Ramírez Pineda. The conflict in the rural Catatumbo region, where the Colombian state has struggled for decades to gain a foothold, has left at least 80 people dead and 40,000 others displaced over the past 10 days, according to the local government, as fighting intensified between the ELN and holdouts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the group's Spanish acronym.
The area is key for drug trafficking, the smuggling of goods and other cross-border illicit activities. The ELN has traditionally dominated in Catatumbo, but has been losing ground to holdouts from the FARC, a guerrilla group that largely disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with the government.
