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The Constitutional Court partially sank a State of Exception that was declared by President Gustavo Petro in northeast Colombia in order to respond to a humanitarian crisis caused by an ELN offensive in January.

Petro assumed extraordinary powers in the Catatumbo region to provide humanitarian aid to the tens of thousands of people who were displaced by the ELN offensive, which killed at least 80 people.

The president additionally sought to use the extraordinary power to tackle historical causes like drug trafficking and economic exclusion that fuel the power of illegal armed groups like the ELN on the Venezuelan border.

Petro declares state of exception in Colombia’s northeast

The court only approved emergency measures related to “the intensification of confrontations between the ELN and other illegal armed groups, attacks against the civilian population and signatories to the Final Peace Accord with the FARC,” the guerrilla groups that abandoned the region as part of a peace process in 2017.

The same ruling said the government would have to seek congressional support to tackle “the historical presence of the ELN, the concentration of illicit crops, the deficiencies and non-compliance in the implementation of the [crop substitution program] PNIS, the unsatisfied basic needs of the population due to insufficient social policy and the damage to energy and road infrastructure, as well as the impact on hydrocarbon sector operations.”

Three of the seven magistrates, including Constitutional Court President Jorge Enrique Ibañez, wanted to sink the entire State of Exception and all emergency measures taken without Congress in the past three months.

Despite the disappointing outcome, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti celebrated the court’s decision to approve that “more than COP2.7 trillion ($644.7 million) be invested in Catatumbo to reestablish order, sovereignty, eradicate illicit crops, build roads, university campuses and health posts, and the return to their territory of 64,000 displaced people.”

Since the ELN offensive, regrouped guerrillas of FARC dissident group EMBF have tried to retake territory that was lost to their rivals.