“The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report ratifies what the National Government has affirmed: in Venezuela, in the state of Apure, there is collusion between the Bolivarian military forces and the ELN, associated with the Second Marquetalia, to confront the FARC dissidents through criminal route systems,” Defense Minister Diego Molano told EL TIEMPO, who insisted that the Maduro regime protects these terrorists.
The above was stated in response to the report that HRW revealed this Monday about violence that has been recorded on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, and that, according to the NGO, has been triggered since the beginning of the year.
The report, based on an investigation on the ground and interviews with more than 100 people, documents the abuses that both the FARC and the ELN dissidents have been committing in their dispute for territorial control in this area. Likewise, the participation in the abuses of the Venezuelan security forces that, according to HRW, cooperate with the Eln.
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“The humanitarian situation experienced by more than 7,000 people in these departments, including internally displaced persons and Venezuelan refugees, is desperate. It is urgent to take action,” said Juan Pappier, one of the report’s authors.
According to HRW, despite the efforts of international agencies, hundreds of displaced people do not have sufficient access to food, drinking water and health services, especially in Vichada.
“Many indigenous people displaced to Vichada from Venezuela live on the banks of the Meta River in makeshift shelters. In Arauca and Vichada, armed groups threaten displaced people, and humanitarian agencies say that displaced children are at risk of being recruited by armed groups,” they say.
In the case of Vichada so far we have not had information on displacements that originate this type of committees or that have evidenced a complex humanitarian situation.
According to the organization, although the Colombian authorities have tried to reduce the power of the armed groups in Arauca, the military operations have not fully protected the population and sufficient resources have not been devoted to dealing with the crisis.
“Colombian authorities must urgently assess the humanitarian needs of those who have fled Apure, and create and implement a humanitarian response plan to assist them. In Vichada they should consider decreeing a ‘state of public calamity’, that in accordance with Colombian legislation would allow the allocation of greater resources by the Government to provide assistance”, says HRW.
Given this, Minister Molano indicated that since January the Government has activated the transitional justice committee in Arauca, to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of displacement. But he said that “in the case of Vichada so far we have not had information on displacements that originate this type of committees or that has evidenced a complex humanitarian situation.”
Molano also highlights the containment plan that, he says, the government has activated since the clashes were recorded in the border areas at the beginning of the year. He highlights that it consists of three phases: containment on the border so that terrorist groups do not go over to the Colombian side to affect civil society; a plan to protect the civilian population, and one to dismantle said organizations.
“It is clear that there are still threats, which originate from the other side of Venezuela, but that our Public Force has come, with that neutralization plan, operating and contributing to search for better security conditions in Arauca”, concludes the minister.
HRW says that at least 103 homicides have been reported in the area between January and February of this year, “by far the highest number of murders in the first two months of the year in Arauca since 2010.”
According to the researcher, the security forces and the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office report blows exclusively against dissidents, “Which suggests that they are working together to remove this group from the area to seize control in the area and the illicit economies of drug trafficking, smuggling and gold trafficking.”
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In the report, HRW also asks the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela to delve into the allegations of complicity by the Venezuelan security forces in the abuses committed by armed groups in Apure, including the Eln and FARC dissidents. .
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI*
Correspondent for EL TIEMPO – Washington
* With reporting by Paula Gaviria, deputy editor of the Print.
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