Colombian city faces worst violence in decades as armed groups wreak havoc

Luke Taylor in Bogotá

Feb. 23, 2025, 12:30 p.m.

Cúcuta imposes curfew as National Liberation Army (ELN) clashes with army in province bordering Venezuela

Residents of a violence-torn province in northern Colombia are bracing for further bloodshed as a conflict between rival armed groups spread to a regional capital in scenes residents said they had not witnessed since the cartel unrest of the 1990s.

The mayor of Cúcuta imposed a 48-hour curfew on the population of 1 million inhabitants in the hope of regaining control of the city after combatants of Colombia’s largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs.