Personal file photograph released today, showing the damage left by the explosion of a car bomb before midnight on Wednesday in a commercial sector, next to the Joel Sierra Human Rights Foundation in Saravena (Colombia). Personal file (EFE )
The security crisis that exists on the Colombian border with Venezuela continues to grow despite the arrival in the area of two battalions of the Colombian Army. The explosion of a car bomb in a central area of the city of Saravena has left one dead and five injured this Thursday morning. Authorities attribute the attack to FARC dissidents, a minority group of guerrillas that did not demobilize during the 2016 peace accords.
The place where the explosion occurred, the Arauca region, has suffered flashes of violence since April of last year, on both sides of the border that Colombia shares with Venezuela. The ELN, another historical Colombian guerrilla group, has dominated the area for decades. There, the ELN is the law and the State. Tax merchants and judge thieves and murderers. It regulates many aspects of people's daily lives. His domain was shared in recent years with the rebels of the FARC, who made part of the territory their own. The two groups lived in peace for a time until they went to war, the point where they are now. At the beginning of this year their clashes left a score of people killed.
The conflict has also moved to the Venezuelan side, to the state of Apure. For a long time, Chavismo tolerated the presence of these armed groups in this area that is so diffuse and far from Caracas. However, in the spring of 2021, the Army of President Nicolás Maduro launched a harsh offensive against dissidents. Experts believe that the government had some kind of secret agreement with the ELN. There were weeks of indiscriminate bombing and military occupation of entire towns. What at first seemed like a triumphal parade of soldiers turned into hell. The guerrillas have been hiding in the jungle all their lives and know the territory like the back of their hand. The dissidents kidnapped a dozen soldiers and carried out key attacks against the soldiers. The confrontation has stalled.deadlocked, with no clear victory on either side.
State in which the street where a car bomb exploded early Thursday morning, in Saravena, Arauca, has remained. Personal archive (EFE)
In the midst of these four-way conflicts, events like tonight's occur.
The car bomb exploded in front of the branch of a human rights organization, in the urban area of the municipality of Saravena.
The explosion affected buildings, electrical networks and drinking water pumps.
The Army, in a statement, assures that it was perpetrated by Structure 10, a residual group of the former FARC.
The majority group of that already extinct guerrilla group that fought for half a century in Colombia is now a political party with a presence in Congress and has broken away from the violence.
These remnants who did not want to return to civilian life have abandoned the political struggle and their main task now is drug trafficking and extortion.
Its main ringleader is Gentil Duarte, the most wanted criminal in Colombia.
The president, Iván Duque, tweeted that the public force will continue to strengthen control of the territory to "corral these armed groups and guarantee the safety of the population." "The miserable terrorist attack with a car bomb is an attack that all Colombians reject," he added. Two weeks ago, its defense minister, Diego Molano, announced the arrival of two thousand soldiers in Arauca to try to impose order in the midst of misrule. After this attack, the minister announced a new security council to study the situation. The government needs to gain credibility in this crisis. A few days ago, while Duque was visiting the region, a photo circulated of ELN combatants, rifles in hand, walking through one of the municipalities, as if they were the local police.The army assured that it was a prefabricated image that tried to scandalize the population.
The Secretary of Government of the place, Edgar Guzmán, has explained on Caracol Radio that all this deployment of troops has not been enough to control the violence.
So far this year, according to HRW, there have been 38 homicides, five reservations of confined indigenous people and threats of forced recruitment.
The main affected is the civilian population, who have to leave their homes and move.
The people who live in this area have a mixed Colombian-Venezuelan identity.
They are only separated by a small river that is very easy to cross.
They are neither from one place nor from another, but from both.
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