“We have 23 dead that have been found at this time” in a rural area of the department of Arauca (northeast), said Vice Minister Jairo García after a security council in the area on Monday.
However, the Colombian government changed its version and assured this Tuesday that the confrontation occurred on the Venezuelan side of the border, in the municipality of La Victoria, state of Hurry, in a place called Los Cañitos.
During the first days of the year, rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN) allied with a faction of former FARC combatants known as “Segunda Marquetalia” clashed with two other dissident groups.
“It is a dispute that originated in Venezuela and that later had repercussions in different townships of Arauca”, explained the head of the Defense portfolio, Diego Molano.
Among the 15 bodies identified are four Venezuelans and two people with criminal records in Colombia for carrying weapons, one of them a dissident leader known by the alias of “Flaco Fred,” added Molano.
Without a unified command, FARC dissidents number about 5,200 combatants, the majority (85%) new recruits who were never in the defunct rebel organization, according to the independent study center Indepaz.
Like the ELN, they fight for control of illegal airstrips to export cocaine from the border area, according to Colombian military intelligence.
The Conservative President Ivan duque He stated that “it is also probable that there are civilians” killed during the clashes in the department of more than 300,000 inhabitants.
His government attributes the clashes to the “porous border” 2,200 kilometers that Colombia shares with Venezuela, where the government of Nicolas Maduro “allows the assent of illegal armed groups.”
“They have been operating at ease in Venezuelan territory with the consent and protection of the dictatorial regime” of Maduro, the president denounced at the end of a security council in Cartagena (north).
Colombia and Venezuela broke off relations shortly after Duque came to power in August 2018.
According to the ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, a dozen families have had to flee due to the fighting in the municipalities of Tame and Saravena. Local authorities denounce that some communities are confined in the middle of the crossfire.
In a message on Twitter, the director of the NGO Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco, described the current situation as “very serious.”
The ELN is recognized as the last guerrilla in Colombia after the disarmament of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which negotiated its demobilization in an agreement with the government of Nobel Peace Prize Juan Manuel Santos in 2016.
Indepaz estimates its power foot at about 2,500 men and women.
According to Bogotá, at least two chiefs of the Second Marquetalia have recently been assassinated in Venezuela over disputes related to illegal rents.
After four decades of frontal combat against drug trafficking, with US financing, Colombia continues to be the largest producer of cocaine and the United States its main consumer.
Source From: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
