The Venezuelans arrive in Arauquita, Colombia, on March 21.
Photographer: Daniel Fernando Martinez Cervera / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Daniel Fernando Martinez Cervera / AFP / Getty Images
Deadly clashes between Venezuelan security forces and illegal armed groups have sent thousands of civilians fleeing the border to Colombia for security.
More than 3,100 Venezuelans have crossed the border “forcibly” since fighting broke out this week, Colombia’s foreign ministry said Wednesday in a Twitter post.
The violence, in the Venezuelan border state of Apure, continued Wednesday, with explosions at a tax agency office there and a National Guard checkpoint, according to human rights group Fundaredes. According to Fundaredes, the military fired on militias from helicopters, while local media reported that a truck from the state power company Corpoelec was attacked.
Venezuela accused Colombia in a statement of supporting the illegal activities of “criminal groups” at the border, including drug trafficking and illegal mining. The government of President Nicolas Maduro said these armed groups have attacked civilians, electrical and oil installations and have even laid landmines in the area.
Several illegal armed groups operate along 2,250-kilometer stretch of border and often fight for control of human and cocaine trafficking routes. The distortions and scarcity caused by the socialist model of Venezuela often create a lucrative smuggling of basic goods in both directions.
As of Monday, at least three people had been killed in the fighting, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said. Two were soldiers and one was the leader of an illegal group, he said. The army has destroyed six camps used by the groups and arrested 32 people, Padrino said Monday.
According to Jeremy McDermott, co-founder of Insight Crime, the Marxist guerrillas of the Colombian National Liberation Army, or ELN, and various factions of FARC rebels who rejected the 2016 peace process with their government at all two sides of the border. tank that studies organized crime.
Several other organized crime groups, including the so-called Gulf clan, also operate in the area, he said.
Authorities do not protect civilians trapped in the middle who have lost “crops, livestock and homes,” opposition lawmaker Luis Lippa told Apure in a telephone interview.
Nearly 2 million Venezuelans have moved to Colombia in recent years to escape hunger and chaos at home.
(Updates with the Venezuelan declaration in the fourth paragraph)