First modification:
In Arauca, a Colombian department on the border with Venezuela, clashes between the FARC and ELN dissidents forced the government of Iván Duque to send military reinforcements to the area to try to stop the wave of violence in the region. Some 24 people have died in the clashes.
Colombian President Iván Duque ordered the Defense Minister, the military leadership and two battalions to be moved to the border line with Venezuela after the deadly clashes in the department of Arauca, in northeastern Colombia, where guerrillas from the FARC dissidents and the ELN clash.
Duque ordered “that two battalions be deployed within the next 72 hours to help with the task of territorial control,” he also stated that “in that process and in that confrontation it is also likely that there are civilians who have died then therefore we want the full identification and all the assessment and all the necessary investigations are carried out. ”The deceased number at least 24.
The Deputy Minister of Defense, Jairo García, after a security council in the area, assured that they are “carrying out an exercise to lift the bodies.”
The government said that to confront the guerrillas, intelligence and counterintelligence and aviation will be strengthened in Arauca. Drones will also be used to anticipate the movements of illegal armed groups.
The Colombian Government attributes the confrontations on the border to the scant vigilance on the part of the Government of Nicolás Maduro, which according to him “allows the assent of illegal armed groups in its territory.”
Venezuela’s Defense Minister, General Vladimir Padrino López, scoffed at the accusations made by the Colombian president. Through his Twitter account he wrote: “Again? Duque, the worst president of Colombia, creates ‘elite forces’, sends battalions to the border, orders airborne operations, deploys drones, etc; while issuing a pamphlet report to disguise a reality that today is palpable in Arauca “. It also reported that the Venezuelan armed forces are already deployed in the municipalities bordering Arauca and that they have raised their alert level.
According to the Colombian ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, some 12 families have had to flee due to the fighting in the municipalities of Tame and Saravena. The authorities have denounced that some inhabitants of the area are caught in the middle of the crossfire.
The situation at the border is “very serious”: HRW
The director for the Americas of the NGO Human Rights Watch, HRW, José Miguel Vivanco, classified the situation at the border as very serious.
Very serious situation on the border between Colombia and Venezuela: https://t.co/X8sL8BpuwJ
– José Miguel Vivanco (@JMVivancoHRW) January 3, 2022
Dissident groups, the ELN and drug traffickers are fighting for the area to have control of drug trafficking in the region.
According to Colombian military intelligence, at least two leaders of the dissidents have been assassinated in Venezuela recently in clashes with other armed groups.
According to the independent study center, Indepaz, the ELN guerrilla group has some 2,500 men in its ranks, while the FARC guerrilla dissidents have about 5,200 men in their force, 85% of them new members who do not they had to do with the extinct FARC, which reached a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016.
Colombia, after the peace process, has once again seen massacres, selective assassinations and forced displacements in recent years.
The violence dates back to the mid-2000s, when the FARC and the ELN clashed in Arauca and in the neighboring Venezuelan state of Apure.
The fighting stopped in 2010, leaving more than 58,000 people displaced and at least 868 civilians killed, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
Some 5,000 people have had to flee from Apure since March 2021 due to clashes between the guerrillas and the Venezuelan army
With Reuters, AFP and EFE.
.