Six dead in military coup against FARC dissidents on the border of Colombia and Venezuela

The Colombian government announced this Saturday the death of six FARC rebels who were marginalized from the 2016 peace agreement, during a military operation on the Colombian-Venezuelan border besieged by a resurgence of violence.

The rebels were killed on Friday in the department of Arauca (northeast), reported Defense Minister Diego Molano from the border area.

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Among the dead is the former guerrilla known by the alias of ‘Chucula’ and who had “more than 25 years of criminal and terrorist experience in the FARC dissidents. He never entered the (peace) agreement and felt calm committing crimes and carrying out his terrorist activities from Venezuela”, added the head of the portfolio.

The president of Colombia, the conservative Iván Duque, blames the “dictatorship” of Nicolás Maduro for protecting the armed groups in his territory, while Caracas denies the accusations.

The Colombian-Venezuelan border is one of the areas of greatest influence of the FARC and ELN dissidents, the last recognized guerrilla group in the country.

Since the beginning of 2022, both rebel groups have been fighting blood and fire for control of the territory, which serves as a drug trafficking corridor.

So far this year at least 146 people have died from this dispute in Arauca, according to the state Ombudsman.

In response to these clashes, which also left thousands of displaced people, Duque deployed some 1,300 additional soldiers to the more than 5,600 already operating there.

Without a unified command, the dissidents add up to some 5,200 militants distributed in different regions of the country, according to the NGO Indepaz, and they finance themselves mainly from drug trafficking and the illegal exploitation of gold and other minerals.

The majority (85%) are new recruits who were never in the defunct rebel organization, according to the same source.

Colombia is experiencing the worst outbreak of violence since the signing of peace in 2016, which significantly reduced the number of deaths from the armed conflict.

Source: Elcomercio

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