Brigadier General Mario Contreras, Commander of the Thirtieth Brigade of Colombian National Army, will assume position as military commander for El Catatumbo, as said by Decree 118 of 2025, which orders the authorities to support operations to restore law and order.
As part of the measures, the airports of Ocaña and Tibú will be reactivated and, from March 21, Satena will operate the Medellín-Ocaña-Cúcuta-Tibú route, facilitating the transport of authorities and inhabitants.
The operations of the Military Forces have led to the extraction of 752 people on 67 flights.
At the end of a security council in the city of Cúcuta – the tenth since the arrival of President Gustavo Petro – the head of the Ministry of Defense, Pedro Sánchez Suárez, announced the measures that will be implemented to strengthen security and protect the inhabitants of the Catatumbo region. There a state of internal commotion (a state of emergency) was decreed in 19 municipalities, after the increase in confrontations among organized armed groups.
"Solving this problem requires a political, social, economic, military and police strategy. It focuses 30% on the police and military issues and 70% on the unified operation of the State to transform the territory,” the Minister said.
In the same vein, Major General Giovanni Rodríguez, commander of the Army's Second Division, said that the Military Forces have accompanied the comprehensive intervention in four phases: safeguarding lives through rescues and evacuations; territorial stabilization, operations against the ELN and fourth, unified operation of the State.
In addition to these phases and operations, an increase in the number of units has been carried out with the arrival of new members of the Military Forces in the region. "We significantly increased what we had in the Catatumbo region and the metropolitan area, which was around 8,500 men, today we are already at 10,500 and we have hit both Structure 33 and the ELN,” General Rodríguez explained.
The commander of Colombian National Army, Luis Emilio Cardozo, announced that the resources of Military Engineers are already being directed to construct the Tibú – La Gabarra road. He highlighted that “there is a bigger challenge: the construction of the transversal of El Catatumbo, a work that President Petro has decided to be executed by Military Engineers, with the support and integration of the communities.” He added that there are currently preliminary designs for projects, which will be evaluated and updated to start the works.
Later, Minister Sánchez Suárez highlighted the need to increase intelligence and technological resources, coordinating with citizen information. “To all people who know, listen, that's the message: share that information about criminal structures,” he said.
He in the same way invited the members of illegal groups to demobilize or surrender to justice “they will always be welcome, according to what Constitution and law says (...) they have that opportunity to go down in history as those who promote life, but if they don’t take that opportunity, we go for them,” he warned.
Finally, he recalled the reward plan that exists to arrest the main ringleaders of the ELN. Alias Gabino, Antonio García, Pablito and Pablo Beltrán are wanted by a reward of up to 3,000 million pesos. For other commanders such as alias Alfredo, Andrei and Gonzalo, the reward is up to 500 million pesos.
Source: Press – Ministry of National Defense
