The military was not there. The armed groups were.
En las veredas rurales de El Charco, Nariño, dos mujeres ancianas perdieron la vida en el fuego cruzado entre facciones disidentes de las FARC que disputan el control territorial de una región donde el Estado apenas se hace sentir. María Hurtado, de 91 años, cayó por una bala perdida; Cleofe Micolta, de 81, murió de un infarto al presenciar la escena. Casi mil familias han abandonado sus hogares, no porque hayan elegido irse, sino porque quedarse se volvió imposible. Lo que ocurre en El Charco no es solo un enfrentamiento armado: es el retrato de una ausencia —la del Estado— que otros llenan con violencia.
- Dos facciones herederas de las FARC —el frente Alfonso Cano y la columna móvil Franco Benavides— se disputan a tiros y granadas el control de territorios y rutas del narcotráfico en el sur de Colombia.
- Dos mujeres mayores, que habían vivido décadas en esa tierra, murieron en cuestión de minutos: una por una bala, la otra por el horror de verla caer.
- 927 familias huyeron de sus hogares; el propio alcalde de El Charco se enteró de las muertes por los desplazados, pues no podía ingresar a la zona.
- En el municipio vecino de Olaya Herrera, el Ejército halló una fosa común con cinco cuerpos, señal de que la violencia lleva semanas acumulándose sin respuesta efectiva.
- Los residentes denuncian que no hubo patrullaje militar durante los enfrentamientos, y las autoridades locales advierten que sin mayor presencia del Estado, el desplazamiento y las muertes continuarán.
Un sábado de principios de abril, la vereda de Mercedes, en el municipio de El Charco, Nariño, se convirtió en escenario de un enfrentamiento entre dos grupos disidentes de las FARC: el frente Alfonso Cano y la columna móvil Franco Benavides. En medio del tiroteo, María Hurtado, de 91 años, fue alcanzada por una bala perdida. Su amiga Cleofe Micolta, de 81, murió de un infarto al presenciar lo ocurrido. El alcalde Víctor Candelo se enteró de las muertes a través de los propios desplazados; él mismo no había podido llegar hasta la zona.
La violencia expulsó a cientos de familias de sus hogares. Según Candelo, 239 familias llegaron al casco urbano de El Charco en las primeras horas; sumadas a las que huyeron de otras veredas rurales, el total ascendió a 927 familias desplazadas. Lo que hizo posible ese éxodo masivo fue, en gran medida, la ausencia del Ejército: los habitantes reportaron que no hubo patrullajes en el área durante los combates, una queja que el alcalde trasladó públicamente a los medios locales.
Días antes, en el municipio vecino de Olaya Herrera, la Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta Hércules había hallado una fosa común con cinco cuerpos en la vereda Palma de Coco, presuntamente combatientes del frente Alfonso Cano muertos en enfrentamientos previos. Cuatro estaban enterrados en fosas separadas; el quinto fue recuperado de una quebrada. Los restos fueron remitidos al Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal.
Lo que revelan estos hechos va más allá de un choque armado puntual. Las disidencias de las FARC se han fragmentado en organizaciones que compiten por las economías ilegales del sur colombiano, y la población civil queda atrapada en el medio. Mientras el Estado no logre —o no decida— hacer presencia efectiva en estas zonas, El Charco y sus alrededores seguirán siendo territorios donde los grupos armados dirimen sus disputas y los civiles pagan el precio.
On a Saturday morning in early April, two elderly women were killed in the crossfire of an armed clash in the rural municipality of El Charco, in Colombia's Nariño department. The violence erupted in the hamlet of Mercedes, where rival factions of FARC dissidents were fighting for control of the territory. María Hurtado, ninety-one years old, was struck by a stray bullet. Cleofe Micolta, eighty-one, suffered a fatal heart attack after witnessing her friend's death. The municipality's mayor, Víctor Candelo, learned of the deaths from residents who had fled the area—he had not yet been able to reach the zone himself to verify the facts.
The fighting was between two splinter groups: the Alfonso Cano front and the Franco Benavides mobile column, both claiming descent from the dissolved FARC organization. These are not abstract territorial disputes. They are fought with bullets and grenades in places where families have lived for generations. The clashes have displaced hundreds of people from their homes. According to Candelo, two hundred thirty-nine families had moved into the urban center of El Charco by the time he spoke to local radio. When combined with those who had fled the surrounding rural areas, the total reached nine hundred twenty-seven families forced from their homes.
What made the displacement possible—what allowed it to happen so completely—was the absence of state presence. Residents reported seeing no army patrols in the area where the fighting occurred. Candelo told the radio station that the community had made this complaint directly: the military was not there. The armed groups were fighting, and the government was not. This gap between violence and response is not incidental to the story. It is the story. Without security forces to contain the conflict or protect civilians, people had no choice but to leave.
The violence in Nariño extends beyond El Charco. Days earlier, in the nearby municipality of Olaya Herrera, the Colombian Army discovered a mass grave containing five bodies in the hamlet of Palma de Coco. The bodies were believed to belong to members of the Alfonso Cano faction who had died in clashes with the Franco Benavides group. Four of the bodies were found in separate graves; the fifth was recovered from a stream. The Army's Joint Task Force for Stabilization and Consolidation, known as Hercules, had been alerted by local residents who knew where to look. The remains were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification and investigation.
These discoveries—the two dead women in El Charco, the mass grave in Olaya Herrera—are symptoms of a larger breakdown. FARC dissidents have fractured into competing armed organizations, each seeking to control the drug trafficking routes and illegal economies that run through southern Colombia. The civilian population is caught between them. An elderly woman dies from shock at seeing her friend shot. Nearly a thousand families abandon their homes. The state, stretched thin or simply absent, cannot or does not intervene. The question now is whether the military presence will increase, whether the displacement will reverse, or whether El Charco and its surrounding areas will remain a space where armed groups settle their disputes and civilians bear the cost.
Notable Quotes
The community has reported that they have not seen Army presence in this sector of fighting, and it is for this reason that displacements continue.— Víctor Candelo, mayor of El Charco
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did these two women die? Was it random, or were they targeted?
They were in the wrong place. María Hurtado was hit by a stray bullet during the fighting. Cleofe Micolta wasn't shot—she had a heart attack after seeing her friend die. Both deaths were consequences of the violence, not its intended targets.
And the displacement—nearly a thousand families. That's a massive number for a rural area. Where did they go?
Two hundred thirty-nine went into the town center of El Charco itself. The rest came from the surrounding countryside. They didn't have far to go, but they had to leave. The fighting made it impossible to stay.
The mayor said he hadn't even been able to reach the area to verify what happened. How does a local official not have access to his own municipality?
Because the armed groups control it, not him. He was getting his information from people who had fled. The state's presence there is so weak that the mayor is learning about deaths in his own jurisdiction secondhand.
These are FARC dissidents fighting each other. I thought the FARC peace agreement ended that organization.
It did, officially. But not everyone accepted the deal. Some commanders rejected it and split off. Now you have these fragments—Alfonso Cano, Franco Benavides—competing for the same territory, the same drug routes. The peace agreement didn't eliminate the incentives that made the FARC powerful in the first place.
And the mass grave they found nearby—is that connected?
It's the same conflict, different location. Five bodies, probably from the same factions fighting in El Charco. The Army found them because residents knew where to look. That tells you something about how visible this violence is to the people living there.
What happens next? Do the families go back?
Not unless the military actually shows up and stays. Right now, the community is saying they haven't seen the Army in the fighting zones. Without that presence, there's nothing stopping the groups from continuing to fight, and nothing protecting civilians who might want to return.