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.
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Defense Minister Diego Molano and Interior Minister Daniel Palacios held a security council on Saturday in the locality of Tame, one of the hot spots in this department of Arauca (about 400 km north -east 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.
A total of 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 Thursday while driving themselves armed in a vehicle registered in Venezuela, and are members of the dissent, said Palacios.
Members of the ELN and dissidents of the FARC are waging a fierce 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.
Referring to the establishment of a "
new security
system", the Minister of Defense repeated that "
what is happening today in Arauca has its origin in Venezuela, in the confrontation between the ELN, associated with the Segunda Marquetalia (another armed group), against FARC dissidents
”.
“
The (Colombian) security forces are on the offensive to guarantee security in the border area
,” assured his interior counterpart.
7000 men deployed
Nearly 7,000 men are currently deployed in the department to "
protect strategic activities and main roads
", with also increased work by 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.
