Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the immediate deployment of additional army battalions to the country’s 2,219-kilometer border with Venezuela on Thursday, as a humanitarian and security crisis triggered by January’s U.S.-led removal of Nicolas Maduro shows no signs of abating — and is now spilling into an openly contested electoral season three days before Colombians go to the polls. The announcement came as Colombian authorities reported that at least 34 soldiers had been wounded in the past week in clashes with armed groups along the Arauca and Norte de Santander border corridors, territories long contested by the National Liberation Army (ELN), FARC dissident factions, and newly emergent paramilitary networks exploiting the power vacuum in Venezuela. “The ELN controls approximately 60 percent of our eastern frontier, and what we are seeing now is a direct consequence of the geopolitical earthquake of January 3rd,” said General (Ret.) Jorge Enrique Caro, a former commander of Colombian joint forces. “Maduro’s removal did not solve anything — it created a vacuum that armed groups on both sides of the border are racing to fill.” Since U.S. forces captured Maduro on January 3 and Venezuelan military command fractured in the hours that followed, Colombia has received approximately 280,000 refugees — a figure the UNHCR has called a “significant undercount.” Many are arriving in the border state of Norte de Santander, overwhelming shelter capacity and straining public health infrastructure that was already stretched thin. The political dimension is impossible to separate from the security one. Three days before Colombia elects its next president, Petro — himself a former leftist guerrilla — is under intense pressure from opposition candidate Álvaro Hernández to account for what Hernández calls “a failed open-border policy.” Hernández has called for a suspension of refugee intake and the construction of fenced barriers along the most contested sections of the frontier. Petro, speaking from the presidential palace in Bogotá, rejected the characterization. “We did not create the crisis — we inherited it. Our obligation under international law and our own constitution is to protect those fleeing violence. To close our border now would be to abandon the very principles that define us as a nation.” The ELN, historically a left-wing rebel group that has held peace negotiations with Bogotá at various points over the past decade, has reportedly reinforced its positions along the Arauca River corridor. Intelligence assessments cited American States (OAS) announced it would hold an emergency session on Friday at Colombia’s request. The United States, whose January military operation triggered the chain of events now straining its key South American ally, has yet to announce any additional assistance for Colombia — a fact that has not gone unnoticed in Bogotá. The crisis comes at a moment of profound regional uncertainty. With presidential elections scheduled for June 1 and polls showing Hernández running within striking distance of Petro’s government, the border crisis has become the central flashpoint of the campaign. Hernández has accused Petro of prioritizing “foreign refugees over Colombian citizens,” a framing international humanitarian organizations have strongly condemned. For families caught in the crossing — many of whom have made the journey on foot through dense jungle — the political arguments feel remote. At a temporary shelter in Cúcuta, Yelitza Romero, 34, who fled Maracaibo with her three children in March, described the situation plainly. “We left because there was no food, no safety. We had no choice.” Whether Colombia’s government can manage the fallout — militarily, politically, and humanitarily — before and after the election may define the country’s trajectory for years to come. — Diego Vargas, Latin America Correspondent, Media Hook