Through a press conference, the Colombian Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, assured that the beginning of 2022 on the border with Venezuela has been characterized by an increase in violence due to clashes between the dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla. and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Some combats that according to the country’s authorities have left 86 people dead so far this year.
Alarms are going off over the Colombian department of Arauca. Colombian Interior Minister Daniel Palacios reported this Sunday that at least 86 people have been killed on Colombia’s border with Venezuela.
A situation that has arisen, according to the Colombian authorities, due to the increase in clashes between the dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla and the National Liberation Army (ELN), who are vying for control of the area.
“Here the dissidents of the FARC, the ELN and the new Marquetalia, generate homicides, their own men and in that sense we will be working hand in hand with the public force,” Palacios denounced at a press conference.
For his part, the Colombian Defense Minister, Diego Molano, announced millionaire rewards for the heads of both organizations. “We’re going after them. It doesn’t matter where they’re hiding, it doesn’t matter if they’re in Venezuela and looking to move to Colombia, we’re going to capture those who are responsible,” he said.
The border department of Arauca has become one of the focuses of the conflict after the peace agreements signed between the former FARC guerrilla and the Colombian government in 2016. In 2022 alone, several massacres have already been reported and the increase in displacements.
With the upsurge in violence, one of the most affected places is the municipality of Tame, where the press conference was held. There, in the month of January there were explosions and several kidnappings. A situation that has ended up affecting the inhabitants of the municipality.
“Due to the war and public order problems, many businesses are closed, many businesses are closed, most people have had to close,” Luz Marina Ardila, a resident of the area, told AFP.
What has led to the increase in violence in Arauca?
Arauca paralyzed the country again at the beginning of the year. It was there that the largest massacre that has been reported in 2022 took place. According to the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office, 27 people lost their lives in January. And although the first versions spoke of clashes between the FARC and ELN dissidents, the latest investigation indicated that the attack could have been in the form of hired assassins.
The massacre exposes the complexity of the violence in the area. In which, in addition to the struggles for territorial control of the armed groups, there are strong disputes over the income derived from drug trafficking.
The Colombian government has denounced that for a year the dissidents of the FARC and the ELN have intensified the fighting. And he has even gone so far as to hold the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, responsible.
“Those who are generating this violence in Arauca, to make it clear to the country, are the dissidents of the FARC, the ELN, with those groups that have criminal disputes on the other side of the border (in Venezuela), in Apure, with the connivance and support of the Bolivarian Military Forces,” said Molano.
Despite the demobilization of a large part of the FARC guerrilla militants after the Peace Agreement, according to the independent Colombian study center Indepaz, the dissidents would have about 5,200 troops. While the ELN would be made up of 2,500.
Specifically in Arauca, the fighting could be explained, in part, because in 2016 the FARC abandoned the areas they controlled in that department. These same were later occupied by the ELN. Now, the dissidents are trying to make a presence in that area again.
This was stated by Jorge Mantilla, director of IFJ conflict dynamics for the Colombian newspaper The viewer: “This generated a kind of disagreement that escalated over the rules of the game. The ELN is used to being the hegemonic actor in Arauca”.
Also in January, the UN and the Colombian Ombudsman said they were concerned about the increase in violence in the department expressed in homicides, threats and displacement.
In an interview with the Colombian radio station WRadiusthe representative of Tame, Juan Carlos Villate, assured that January 2 was the most violent day of the last 10 years.
According to what Luis Fernando Trejos, a professor of Political Science at the Universidad del Norte, told France 24, what is happening on the border between Colombia and Venezuela is “a binational conflict in which there are regular and irregular actors who face each other. and side of the border.”
Divergences between Venezuela and Colombia: another point of tension on the border
The crossed accusations between Colombia and Venezuela add to the tense panorama. Colombian President Iván Duque has repeatedly blamed Maduro for protecting armed groups in his territory. Some accusations that Caracas denies.
The Colombian Minister of the Interior, for his part, once again assured this Sunday that the violence that Arauca is experiencing has its origin in the neighboring country.
It is clear that the violence that exists in Arauca originates in Venezuela due to the dispute over criminal income from the Eln, dissidents from the Farc and the Second Marquetalia.
The Public Force will contain, protect and go on the offensive against narco-terrorist groups pic.twitter.com/RTSVZp4j2l
– Diego Molano Aponte (@Diego_Molano) February 13, 2022
On the other side of the border, the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, reported on Friday the death of at least eight people due to the explosion of anti-personnel mines in the state of Apure. Venezuela also assures that it is fighting Colombian armed groups in its territory.
With AFP and local media