Bogotá, Colombia – The inaugural flight of a new commercial route from Cúcuta to Tibú, the largest town in the embattled northeastern Catatumbo region, took place yesterday, June 18.
The new route, operated by government-owned airline Satena, follow months of restoration efforts and lobbying by Tibú locals – they hope improved connectivity will redress some of the causes of the violence that has affected at least 90,000 people in the region this year, according to the United Nations.
“The arrival of Satena… to Tibú not only represents a new aerial route, but a concrete opportunity to widen institutional, social, and economic ties in a key region of the country,” said Major General Óscar Zuluaga Castaño, President of Satena.
Catatumbo is a resource-rich region on the Venezuelan border, home to vast palm oil plantations, petroleum reserves, and coca fields. The latter has been a key driver of the armed conflict between two rebel groups: the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Frente 33, a dissident offshoot of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Tibú’s airstrip has been out of use since January 31, when oil giant Ecopetrol stopped using it for private flights two weeks after conflict erupted in the region.
Fearing the abandoned runway would be “invaded”, Tibú’s Association of Communal Action Boards (ASOJUNTAS), a local coordination body, took control of it.
“We spent almost two months taking care of it. We did some cleaning, weeding, paint removal, and garbage collection, to beautify the space,” Jaime Botero, President of the ASOJUNTAS, told The Bogotá Post.
Amid a bloody internal conflict centred around Tibú, Botero rallied community volunteers to restore the airstrip.
“This is our historical heritage as Tibuyanos. Our parents founded the municipality in 1945,” said Botero.
Since completing the restoration, he has lobbied the national government to begin flights to Tibú.
Satena agreed in May to launch a new route connecting Tibú and Cúcuta alongside two other new routes from Ocaña, another town in Catatumbo, to Medellín and Cúcuta.
Satena is a commercial airline operated by the Colombian Air Force under the slogan “the airline of the Colombians.” It connects remote regions of the country to larger cities.
“We are proud that today the civil aviation authority and the national government are willing to open, or reopen, this airport,” said Botero.
The route will rely on B-1900 aircraft, which are designed to operate on runways that are unpaved or have limited infrastructure.
The flights are scheduled to run three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The arrival of air transportation options marks a milestone for communities in Catatumbo that have for years struggled with crumbling roads and bridges.
Botero cites poor infrastructure as a leading cause of the armed conflict, with local farmers forced to work in illicit economies like coca cultivation because transporting other crops to market is not financially viable.
He hopes the airport will mark a change for the local residents he was elected to represent.
“As president of ASOJUNTAS I feel proud to have contributed to the recovery of this airport and it is up to us, the Tibuyanos, and the community in general, to take care and preserve this space… which comes to the benefit of the entire population,” said Botero.