Venezuela will ask for
"immediate help"
from the United Nations to defuse anti-personnel mines laid, according to Caracas, in the south-east of the country by Colombian armed groups during the fighting that has been taking place since March 21 on the border with Colombia , announced President Nicolás Maduro on Sunday April 4 on public television.
Venezuela is preparing a
"communication"
which will be addressed to
"United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (...) to request immediate emergency assistance from the United Nations (...) to defuse the minefields left by these groups. illegal assassins and drug traffickers from Colombia, ”
said Nicolás Maduro.
Read also: Colombia: Farc take up arms again
According to the Venezuelan official record, 15 people (six Venezuelan soldiers and nine members of armed groups qualified as
"terrorists"
by the authorities) were killed, while the Venezuelan army posted images of artillery fire on Twitter on Sunday.
About 30 people have also been arrested and weapons, explosives and drugs seized since the beginning of the fighting intended, according to Caracas, to ban Venezuelan territory to the Colombian armed groups which had settled there.
“We dislodged them
(these groups)
from several camps.
They left a mined territory (...).
We have lost several soldiers with these mines.
Assassins! ”
, continued Mr. Maduro.
In usual rhetoric, the Venezuelan president accused these groups of being linked
"to the Colombian army and to the government
(of Colombian President)
Iván Duque."
“They are dressed as guerrillas to serve the drug trafficking routes
,” he added.
Read also: Colombia: peace agreements with the weakened Farc
From a security source in Colombia, these
"armed groups"
are dissidents of the former Colombian guerrilla forces of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Although most of the 13,000 members of the former Marxist guerrilla have laid down their arms,
“dissident”
factions
have not accepted the peace process signed in 2016 in Colombia.
These groups without a unified command, financed by drug trafficking and clandestine mines, have strengthened in isolated areas, according to Colombian military intelligence.
Nicolás Maduro had recognized last Sunday the possibility that these groups are dissidents of the Farc.
Usually, the Venezuelan authorities avoid mentioning these FARC dissidents.
Despite 2,200 kilometers of common border, Venezuela and Colombia no longer have diplomatic relations since Bogotá recognized the opponent Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela in 2019. Relations between the two ideologically opposed neighbors are very tense.
More than 3,000 people have fled to Colombia since the fighting began, according to Bogotá.
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