Colombia president decrees emergency powers to restore order in coca region wracked by rebel combat

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s president issued a decree Friday giving him emergency powers to restore order in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela wracked in recent days by a deadly turf war among dissident rebel groups.

President Gustavo Petro’s decree gives him up to 270 days to impose curfews, restrict traffic and take other steps that would normally violate Colombians’ civil rights or require congressional approval.

It is the first time in more than a decade that a Colombian president has used such an extreme tactic and underscores the seriousness of the current conflict in a country that for decades was paralyzed by political violence.

However, it applies only to the rural Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela. In the past week, at least 80 people have been killed and an estimated 36,000 more displaced as fighting intensifies between the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and holdouts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Earlier this week Petro reactivated arrest orders against 31 top ELN commanders that had been suspended as part of an effort to woo the the Cuban revolution-inspried insurgency into a peace deal to end its 60 year war against the state. 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.

The current conflict is spilling across the border into Venezuela, where some of those fleeing the violence have sought refuge.