Some 86 people have been killed so far in 2022 on the Colombian border with Venezuela, punished by the clashes between the FARC dissidents that departed from the peace agreement and the ELN guerrillasauthorities reported this Saturday.
“There have been 86 homicides in 2022, of which 16 people had an arrest warrant since they had links with criminal groups”Interior Minister Diego Molano said on Twitter at the end of a security council in the border municipality of Tame (northeast).
The border area with Venezuela is one of the biggest sources of violence that followed the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia.
The dissidents and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last recognized guerrilla group in the country, have been fighting a dispute for more than a year over income derived from drug trafficking, according to the government.
Defense Minister Diego Molano announced millionaire rewards for the heads of both organizations on the border, including aliases Antonio Medina, Arturo and Pablito.
“We’re going after them. It doesn’t matter where they hide, it doesn’t matter if they are in Venezuela and are looking to move to Colombia, we are going to capture those who are responsible,” Molano warned, also from the municipality of Tame.
Absence of diplomatic relations in border violence
The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, blames the “dictatorship” of Nicolás Maduro for protecting the armed groups in his territory, while Caracas denies the accusations.
Although the bulk of the FARC rebels demobilized in 2017, There were active dissidences without a unified command that dispute territorial control with organizations such as the ELN and drug gangs.
By order of Duke, Some 7,000 uniformed public forces guard the porous border of some 2,200 kilometers.
No diplomatic relations the governments of Colombia and Venezuela frequently throw darts at each other over the violence in the bordering territory.
The ELN has about 2,500 members and the FARC dissidents add up to about 5,200 combatants, according to the independent think tank Indepaz.
According to the government, armed groups are fighting for control of drug trafficking in the country, the world’s largest producer of cocaine. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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