Colombia’s president issued a decree giving him emergency powers in a region bordering Venezuela to suppress rising conflict among feuding rebel groups. President Gustavo Petro’s decree allows him to impose curfews, restrict traffic, and take other measures outside the constitution for 90 days in the rural Catatumbo region near the Venezuelan border. In Catatumbo, 80 people have been killed and an estimated 36,000 people displaced in ongoing fighting between the National Liberation Army, or ESPN, and remnants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. President Petro also reactivated arrest warrants against 31 top ELN commanders and suspended all peace talks.
Information from AP News, Reuters, New York Times.
