COLOMBIAN President Gustavo Petro said on Monday that he will declare a state of emergency over the guerilla attacks in the north-east that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes.

In a message on X, Mr Petro said that he will “declare a state of internal commotion,” a measure that enables the executive branch to pass certain kinds of legislation without congressional approval for three months. 

The measure will go into effect after a decree is signed by the president and his cabinet, but it can also be invalidated by Colombia’s constitutional court.

Internal commotion decrees were used in the early 2000s by the administration of then-president Alvaro Uribe to increase financing for the military through a special war tax. 

According to Colombia’s constitution, this emergency measure cannot be used to suspend congress or eliminate civil rights. “I hope the judicial system supports us,” Mr Petro wrote on X.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Petro had warned that his nation’s military will take offensive actions against the National Liberation Army after the rebels, known as the ELN, unleashed a wave of attacks in Colombia’s Catatumbo region, in which at least 80 people have been killed.

Mr Petro wrote on X that “the ELN has chosen the path of war, and that’s what they will get.”

Mr Petro, who was a member of a guerilla group during his youth, initiated peace talks with the ELN in 2022.

But talks have stalled over multiple disagreements about how the rebels would disarm and the kinds of economic reforms that the government would implement in exchange for their disarmament.