# Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting Date: 2025 ## The fact On 24 January 2025 President Petro, with the cabinet, signed Decree 62 declaring a state of internal commotion for ninety days in the Catatumbo region of Norte de Santander, the Cúcuta metropolitan area, and the Cesar municipalities of Río de Oro and González. On 17 January he had already suspended ELN peace talks after the group’s offensive against FARC dissidents. UN humanitarian prints that fortnight recorded tens of thousands displaced. Death totals were contested. ## Context The ELN ceasefire had expired on 3 August 2024. UN News later described around 80,000 people affected. He deployed troops. He did not sit as every ELN fighter. [Antonio García](/people/antonio-garcia) remains an unresolved person candidate. 17 January Reuters suspension; 24 January Decree 62. Store the decree as the official instrument. 3 August 2024 expiry is the parent rupture of the ceasefire. Keep Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting on 2025-01-24 separate from neighbouring Law 2272, Decree 1117, the 3 August 2024 ELN ceasefire expiry, the 17 January 2025 talk suspension, Decree 62 of 24 January 2025, and the 7 August 2026 handover. The president of Colombia is head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief. He can sanction a Total Peace statute, decree a bilateral ceasefire, and declare conmoción interior. He does not sit as an ELN front commander, a Senate committee teller, a CNE precinct printer, or a Venezuelan border clerk. ## Evidence and sources SUIN-Juriscol / Presidency of Colombia carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently. ## Significance The path is [petro](/people/gustavo-petro)-security-and-eln: a completed emergency after the ELN table ruptured, with UN displacement prints on the same cluster. ## What is established and what is not Established: Decree 62 was signed on 24 January 2025; talks had been suspended on 17 January; UN agencies recorded large-scale displacement in Catatumbo. Not established: A unique Catatumbo death total from this page, or a unique later national IDP coefficient from that fortnight. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. The ELN and FARC-dissident fronts fought. Local authorities and UN agencies recorded displacement.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting, not a later speech about Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting on 2025-01-24 is not a licence to treat every later SUIN-Juriscol / Presidency of Colombia communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Petro signs Decree 62 declaring conmoción interior in Catatumbo after ELN–dissident fighting into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He signed the decree and announced the suspension. The ELN and FARC-dissident fronts fought. Local authorities and UN agencies recorded displacement. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. ## People - Gustavo Petro: https://factrail.ai/people/gustavo-petro ## Drivers - Petro-era ELN and domestic security: https://factrail.ai/drivers/petro-security-and-eln ## Sources - https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160401 - https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombias-president-suspends-peace-talks-with-eln-rebels-2025-01-17/ - https://www.suin-juriscol.gov.co/viewDocument.asp?ruta=Decretos/30054344 ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/co-petro-catatumbo-2025