As the coronavirus pandemic crept up in villages across Colombia in March and the country locked down, illegal armed groups began informing communities that they would take the law into their own hands. On March 28, the National Liberation Army (ELN)—a rebel group with a long history of abusing rights to impose its rules—announced a one-month nationwide cease-fire as a “humanitarian gesture to the Colombian people.” At the same time, ELN fighters in Bolívar, northern Colombia, released a pamphlet saying they felt “forced to kill people in order to preserve lives.”
Rights groups warn that armed groups including the ELN are using the pandemic to expand their control, threatening those who break the curfew with punishments and even death. In June, an urban criminal group that dubbed itself the Organization of Mexico released a flyer in Quibdó, Chocó department, offering to work with the local government to implement the curfew. The action was rejected by local authorities, but the group offered to contribute a fleet of 24 motorcycles to patrol the city to enforce the lockdown. “We won’t respect their lives, as they don’t respect those of our fellow countrymen with their actions,” the flyer said, suggesting those who violated the curfew would be killed.
