- [Narrator] This town is surrounded by groups battling for control of Colombia's lucrative cocaine corridors. We're the first journalists to visit after armed militants lifted a road blockade just weeks ago, joining a humanitarian caravan deep into a region dominated by war. Flashes between offshoot groups of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, its opponent, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and the country's military, is plunging Colombia into its worst period of violence in decades.

These farmers are working in Catatumbo, a region with one of the highest densities of coca crops in the world. It's home to more than 150 square miles of the plant, the raw ingredient used to make cocaine. The region is a funnel for trafficking routes into neighboring Venezuela and has been a lucrative hub for armed groups to fund their movements for decades.

Although cultivating the crop is illegal, many rural communities here rely on its income. Some of the workers are as young as 12. They're essentially at the bottom of the cocaine-producing chain, cultivating the leaf and turning it into a paste.

Traffickers either pay the armed groups who control the area to collect the product or belong to the groups themselves. The paste is then taken to labs where it's refined into cocaine and moved through smuggling routes such as ports. By the time it reaches markets in the US and Europe, the product exported from Catatumbo, where a kilo is roughly $1,500, is sold for an average of $25,000, meaning the coca trade here is worth almost $8 billion.

Vast areas of the region used to be controlled by a guerrilla group called the FARC. But in 2016, a peace deal with the government led to its fighters disarming and demobilizing across Colombia. In the years since, the territory has become a power vacuum, filled by other armed groups vying for the lucrative corridors. That includes the ELN, formed as a Cuban-inspired rebel group in the 1960s, alongside several other actors including FARC offshoot groups like the EMBF, essentially rebels who refused to lay down their weapons. Amid a global boom in cocaine, violent turf wars between the groups are flaring up.

A series of coordinated attacks launched by the ELN in January 2025 set off a wave of killings, kidnappings and open warfare that has destroyed entire communities. This family has just lost their son, who fought for the ELN in Catatumbo. He's one of the thousands of young people who joined armed groups to fight in this war. Many are lured in by the promise of money and social media videos popularizing the guerrilla lifestyle.

Cristian's family have joined a vigil led by a humanitarian organization of mothers supporting victims of the conflict. The group is hosting a soccer team of teenage boys from the conflict zone who are vulnerable to recruitment. We're joining the group in a humanitarian caravan to visit Pacelli, a town trapped in a turf war between the EMBF and the ELN.

To get there, we have to drive along a road cutting through areas held by opposing sides, also at risk of being targeted in military strikes. On one corner, we're stopped by armed militants dressed in civilian clothing and are told to stop filming. Groups use the checkpoints to monitor and control who is coming in and out of the territory. As we continue, we pass destroyed towns almost empty due to the fighting, with signs of the armed groups tagged to the walls.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. The few who remain hang white flags outside their houses. Police stations are barely visible from the roadside, covered in netting to try to repel incoming projectiles. As we get closer, an ELN flag is positioned on the hillside. This town only reopened to outsiders weeks ago after a road blockade from FARC rebels since December 2025.

Forced lockdowns are used as a tactic to create fear and control entire populations. Even when restrictions are lifted, the effects of them linger on. We agreed to keep the identity of this shopkeeper anonymous, due to concerns of a retaliation from the groups who surround the town. Residents say there are not enough teachers left to educate the children.

Although the town is at the center of this conflict, it still relies on the drug helping to fuel it. That's despite efforts to eradicate its coca. After 2016, government plans offered alternatives to farmers to abandon the crop. But coca farmers here say they were let down by successive governments, who did not provide enough money and equipment. Other farmers say a lack of infrastructure in Catatumbo makes it impossible to move to legal crops.

The Colombian government recently announced over $1 billion of investment to the region, which promises improvements to infrastructure. That's at the same time as unleashing a new wave of attacks on coca farms. Authorities are setting fire to them in an attempt to crack down on the illegal substance and the violence that comes with it. But experts say these efforts are just a drop in the ocean. Anytime they strike one of these farms, another will pop up elsewhere. The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, unveiled a plan for peace at the start of his term.

But that plan has failed. Peace talks have largely broken down, and armed groups have doubled in size. Now Colombia is shifting to a more militarized approach, as President Trump is piling on the pressure, threatening tariffs and even military intervention, if Colombia does not crack down on drug trafficking. But for many in this region dominated by conflict for decades, the idea of increased militarization only exacerbates fears of a deeper crisis.