BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's government is reactivating arrest orders for the top leadership of the nation's largest rebel group following attacks on civilians as part of a deadly turf war with dissident guerrillas from another armed group for control of a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela.
President Gustavo Petro’s leftist government in 2022 suspended warrants against top commanders of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, as part of an effort to coax the 60-year-old insurgency into a peace deal.
Click to Gallery
People displaced by violence in towns across the Catatumbo region, where rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, line up to register for shelter at a stadium in Cúcuta, Colombia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People displaced by violence in towns across the Catatumbo region, where rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, take shelter at a soccer stadium in Cúcuta, Colombia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Soldiers inspect a car riddled with bullets where a family was shot and killed in Tibu, Colombia's northeastern Catatumbo region, where dozens have been killed amid clashes between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Residents gather under the watch of a soldier in Tibu, Colombia, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, following a series of guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police guard a school serving as a shelter for people displaced by violence in the Catatumbo region, where rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in Tibu, Colombia, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Residents cross a river to Venezuela from Colombia's Tibu, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, following guerrilla attacks that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People displaced by guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes, gather at a school serving as a temporary shelter in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police patrol in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, following guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People displaced by guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes, arrive to a school serving as a temporary shelter in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
FILE - Antonio Garcia, of the Colombian guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN), speaks to the press after signing an agreement with the Colombian government to resume peace talks in Caracas, Venezuela, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
FILE - Pablo Beltran, commander and chief negotiator for the National Liberation Army, ELN, rebel group speaks during a joint press conference with Jose Otty Patiño, chief negotiator for the Colombian government, as a part of the peace talks between both parties in Bogota, Colombia, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Among the 31 rebel leaders whose arrest was ordered Wednesday by the chief prosecutor's office is Pablo Beltrán, the lead ELN negotiator in those halting peace talks, as well as the group's top military commander, best known by his alias, Antonio García.
Petro — himself a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group — has also suspended the peace talks in response to the violence.
At least 80 people have been killed and thousands more displaced in Colombia's Catatumbo region in the past week as fighting intensifies between the ELN and holdouts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a guerrilla group that largely disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with the government. Some of the estimated 18,000 displaced people have fled into Venezuela.
The armed groups are fighting over control of strategic drug routes that have been fueling a boom in cocaine production from Colombia in recent years.
It’s not clear what upset the delicate truce between the groups, which rely on the drug trade to fund their insurgencies. Some analysts believe the Cuban revolution-inspired ELN has been losing strength in its historic stronghold in northeastern Colombia as the FARC dissidents expand their influence.
Colombia’s Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that the government will not rest until those responsible for the violence that killed signatories of the 2016 peace agreement and civilians in the Catatumbo region are brought to justice.
“We reject the war crimes and the crimes against humanity unreservedly committed by the ELN and the dissident groups...," he said. “The murder of the signatories to the peace agreement are unacceptable, and we condemn those deaths robustly.”
Murillo said the government suspended peace talks with the ELN “because peace requires reciprocity,” and he called on the international community to support its position.
He added that Colombia is not renouncing peace, stressing that “Peace continues to be our cornerstone commitment.”
The top U.N. official in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, also condemned the Catatumbo bloodshed that he said resulted from an ELN attack by fighters who traveled to an area where a rival armed group was present.
He called the killings “an act against peace itself” and reiterated his call for armed groups to halt all actions that put civilians, including community leaders and peace signatories, at risk.
Massieu told the council that Catatumbo, like many regions of Colombia, is still awaiting dividends of the 2016 peace agreement, especially “a comprehensive presence of the state that would bring public services, legal economies, development opportunities and security.”
“It is in the vacuum of state presence that illegal armed groups are fighting for territorial and social control,” he said. “Implementation of the peace agreement is central to lasting solutions for preventing and resolving the causes of armed conflict.”
—-
Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.
People displaced by violence in towns across the Catatumbo region, where rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, line up to register for shelter at a stadium in Cúcuta, Colombia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People displaced by violence in towns across the Catatumbo region, where rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, take shelter at a soccer stadium in Cúcuta, Colombia, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Soldiers inspect a car riddled with bullets where a family was shot and killed in Tibu, Colombia's northeastern Catatumbo region, where dozens have been killed amid clashes between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Residents gather under the watch of a soldier in Tibu, Colombia, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, following a series of guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police guard a school serving as a shelter for people displaced by violence in the Catatumbo region, where rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been clashing with former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in Tibu, Colombia, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Residents cross a river to Venezuela from Colombia's Tibu, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, following guerrilla attacks that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People displaced by guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes, gather at a school serving as a temporary shelter in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police patrol in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, following guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
People displaced by guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes, arrive to a school serving as a temporary shelter in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
FILE - Antonio Garcia, of the Colombian guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN), speaks to the press after signing an agreement with the Colombian government to resume peace talks in Caracas, Venezuela, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
FILE - Pablo Beltran, commander and chief negotiator for the National Liberation Army, ELN, rebel group speaks during a joint press conference with Jose Otty Patiño, chief negotiator for the Colombian government, as a part of the peace talks between both parties in Bogota, Colombia, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting privately with congressional Republicans at the White House on Thursday as his allies on Capitol Hill are arguing with themselves over the size, scope and details of his “big, beautiful bill” to cut taxes, regulations and government spending.
The House and Senate GOP leaders are looking to Trump for direction on how to proceed, but so far the president has been noncommittal about the details — only pushing Congress for results.
The standoff is creating frustration for Republicans as precious time is slipping and they fail to make progress on what has been their top priority with their party in control in Washington. At the same time, congressional phone lines are being swamped with callers protesting Trump's cost-cutting efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk against federal programs, services and operations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president and lawmakers were discussing “tax priorities of the Trump administration,” including Trump's promises to end federal taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Renewing tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 also was on the agenda, she said.
“The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done,” Leavitt said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, despite the slimmest of majorities, has insisted Republicans will stay unified and on track to deliver on his goal of House passage of the legislation by April.
But as Johnson's timeline slips — the House was hoping to start budget hearings this week — the Senate is making moves to take charge.
Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota have proposed a two-step approach, starting with a smaller bill that would include money for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall and deportation plans, among other priorities. They later would pursue the more robust package of tax break extensions before a year-end deadline.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, announced late Wednesday that he was pushing ahead next week with hearings to kickstart the process.
Graham's first bill would total some $300 billion and include border money and a boost in defense spending, largely paid for with a rollback of Biden-era green energy programs. Graham, R-S.C., said that would give the Trump administration the money it needs to "finish the wall, hire ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents to deport criminal illegal immigrants, and create more detention beds so that we do not release more dangerous people into the country.”
“This will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country,” Graham said.
That's a long way from the more $3 trillion in tax cuts and more than than $2 trillion in spending reductions that hard-line conservatives are demanding.
House Republicans are deeply split over Graham’s approach. But they are also at odds over their own ideas.
House GOP leaders are proposing some $1 trillion in savings over the decade, lawmakers said, but members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want at least double that amount.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said of achieving only $100 billion a year in savings, at a time of $7 trillion in annual spending: “That’s insane.”
Roy and other members of the Freedom Caucus are interested in Graham's approach, which is seen as a down payment on Trump's immigration and deportation plans, while the party continues work on the broader tax and spending cuts package.
But Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington, the House Budget Committee chairman, said the $2.5 trillion in spending reductions was a “stretch goal.”
Johnson, R-La., needs almost complete unanimity from his ranks to pass any bill over objections from Democrats. In the Senate, Republicans have a 53-47 majority, with little room for dissent.
Trump has repeatedly said he is less wed to the process used in Congress than the outcome of achieving his policy goals.
President Donald Trump talks to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., left and and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., right, after he spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with reporters to discuss the Trump agenda following a closed-door strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - The White House is seen, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)