Eighty-six people have been killed since the beginning of the year in a region of northeastern Colombia, bordering Venezuela, which in recent weeks has become one of the epicenters of violence in the country. Defense Minister Diego Molano and Interior Minister Daniel Palacios held a security council on Saturday February 12 in the locality of Tame, one of the hot spots in this department of Arauca (about 400 km northeast of Bogotá).
Arauca has been the scene of a bloody rivalry since the beginning of January between members of two armed groups, the ELN (National Liberation Army, Guevarist guerrillas) and dissidents from the FARC, who reject the peace agreement signed in 2016 with this Marxist guerrilla. In total, 86 homicides have taken place since the beginning of the year in the department, Minister Palacios said during a press briefing.
The last four victims were executed on Thursday while driving themselves armed in a vehicle registered in Venezuela, and are members of the dissent, said Mr. Palacios. Members of the ELN and dissidents of the FARC are waging a bitter struggle for control of this border region, separated from Venezuela by the Arauca River, a smuggling zone and an important drug trafficking route. Most of the victims were killed in targeted killings.
Bounty Heads
Referring to the establishment of a “new security device”the Minister of Defense reiterated that “what is happening today in Arauca has its origins in Venezuela, in the confrontation between the ELN, associated with the Segunda Marquetalia (another armed group), against the dissidents of the FARC”. “The (Colombian) security forces are on the offensive to guarantee security in the border area”, assured his counterpart from the inside. Nearly 7,000 men are currently deployed in the department to “protect strategic activities and main routes”with moreover an increased work of the intelligence services, according to the authorities.
Arauca is an oil production zone, and the army maintains a heavy presence around these installations. The heads of the leaders of the two groups, alias “Pablito” for the ELN, and “Antonio Medina” for the dissidence are priced respectively at one million dollars and 250,000 dollars.
The region has been a stronghold of the ELN for decades, which has many relays in the population and imposes the law of silence there. Additional measures will be taken to ensure the protection of candidates in the legislative elections on March 13, the Minister of the Interior also indicated. According to Bogota, the Colombian guerrillas, the ELN in particular, have their rear base in Venezuela, where they receive support and backing. Caracas denies these accusations. A porous border nearly 2,200 km long, an area of multiple trafficking, separates the two countries whose relations are execrable and which broke off diplomatic relations in 2018.