Venezuelan soldiers were conducting joint operations with Colombian rebels in Apure state earlier this year as violence mounted along a remote and often lawless stretch of the Colombia-Venezuelan border, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
The report released Monday says a ceasefire between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and another rebel organization called Joint Eastern Command ended in January, leading to clashes, kidnappings and killings of civilians, forcing more than 3,300 people to flee from homes in the Venezuelan state of Apure. More than 3,800 people have been displaced in the Colombian province of Arauca.
Human Rights Watch visited Arauca in February and spoke with humanitarian workers and refugees from Apure, who said they witnessed Venezuelan National Guard members with ELN rebels enter villages and take people away in trucks. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that those who were abducted from their homes were accused of collaborating with the Joint Eastern Command.
“Armed groups are committing brutal attacks on civilians in the Colombia-Venezuela border region, in some cases with the complicity of Venezuelan security forces, while the Colombian authorities have not done enough to respond,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, acting Americas director at Human Rights Watch .
In February, Colombia’s defense minister said the Venezuelan army had formed an alliance with the ELN to remove the Joint Eastern Command from the area because they were “stealing drug routes from them”.
The Venezuelan government has denied accusations of collaborating with the ELN and said it is fighting rebel groups from Colombia who are trying to destabilize their government.
The Joint Eastern Command is led by former members of Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, who refused to sign a 2016 peace accord with the government in which more than 13,000 guerrilla fighters surrendered their weapons.
In March last year, more than 5,000 people fled the Venezuelan state of Apure to Colombia as fighting between Venezuela’s army and rebel groups intensified.
The Venezuelan government says it is trying to remove all drug trafficking groups from Apure. In its report, Human Rights Watch claims that the recent military operations in Apure were aimed exclusively at the Joint Eastern Command.