In the remote corner of northeast Colombia, where earthen roads lead to lush hills lined with banana trees, farmers and their families became victims of violence, unlike everything the country saw in the generation.
As two rebel groups fight for territory, More than 54,000 people They fled their homes, and it was estimated that 80 people had died in a few days, and the number of deaths would be expected to climb.
At the root of this conflict, decades of old battles over money and drugs, and Failure of past bids lead to permanent peace. But analysts, diplomats, and even the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, point to another, more recent factor that helps in Chaos in Colombia: neighboring Venezuela.
Over the past decade, as Venezuela has descended into autocracy, and his government has drawn closer The main aggressor in the current conflict in the neighborhood, a longtime rebel group called the National Army of Liberation, or Eln.
Born as a Marxist Group in Santander in Colombia, in the 1960s, ELN increasingly used Venezuela as refuge, moving deeper into the country, enriching drug trade and other illegal activities, doubled in about 6000 fighters and strengthening relations with Venezuela officials.
In turn, they say Colombian authorities, the autocratic president of the country, Nicolás Maduro, who became more isolated on the global stage, had benefits from the estate of a powerful armed group as a protector against domestic and foreign threats, including the possibility of a state strike.
For years, the decay of Democracy Venezuela has burdened the neighboring Colombia, sending about three million refugees Running into the nation out of only 50 million.
Now, some say, Venezuela Mr. Madura is used as a database to release slightly far more destabilizing: a new wave of destruction in Colombia.
Mr. Petro went to accusing Eln become a “foreign force” that attacked Colombia. “This is a problem of national sovereignty,” he said, “not only the inner conflict, which we have long had.”
Venezuela Minister Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, in statement At the end of January, he said that “it is important with crystal clarity that Venezuela is not serving, nor will he ever serve as a platform for armed groups outside the law, regardless of their nature, ideology or nationality.”
Why Eln has decided to attack now is not clear, but Mr. Peter’s relationship and Mr. Madur, once friendly, has shook significantly in the last few months.
Mr. Petro is the first leftist president of Colombia, the former guerril himself and the seemingly natural ally of Mr. Madur, who calls himself a socialist. Two years ago they held High profile meeting in Caracas, where the two promised to work together on issues of mutual interest.
This included the safety of their divided 1,300 mile limits.
Then in July Mr. Maduro He declared himself a winner From the charged presidential elections, refusing to produce Tallies to support this claim and prison of about 2000 people in the middle of a wave of protest.
United Nations and other independent monitors have questioned the result. The United States recognized the opposition candidate as a winner.
Soon Mr. Petro, one of the few leaders who was still kind with Mr. Madur, took a more critical tone, publicly persuaded him to post election results and let out political prisoners. Mr. Maduro answered by ordering “hit in the face“Everyone who interfered with Venezuella’s jobs.
When Mr. Maduro swore to the third term of January 10th, Mr. Petro rejected attend the ceremony or recognize Venecuelan as president.
Five days later, Eln sent fighters from the southern point in Colombia to northern Colombia, in a strategically important region called Catatumbo, saying on x that he sought to throw out a rival armed group called 33.
Two groups have long distributed control over the region, home to huge coca fields, a basic product in cocaine. Now the fragile agreement on the division of power has broken.
Violence was overthrown by Mr. Petra’s chances in achieving one of his most important goals of politics: a peace agreement with ELN, a key part of the ambitious promise of a campaign – “total peace”, called him – that he made all the conflict in Colombia.
The country has suffered a decade of internal violence that has sought hundreds of thousands of lives.
“Total Peace” was already in a bad place, “said Kyle Johnson, co -founder of the Conflict Responses Foundation, non -profit research groups in Bogota. “With this outbreak of violence, it feels political like the final nail in the coffin.”
Today, tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the midst of violence. Some families in Catatumbo sought refuge in the woods, survived on what they were able to carry with them.
Others moved to Tibú, a small Colombian city on the Venezuela border, sleeping at a school that became a shelter. Others transferred to the Colosseum in Cúcuti, the capital of the region, who every morning was lined with food and help.
On the last day at the school in Tibúu, the classrooms became bedrooms, and the children played while the young woman, prevailed from emotions, cried and sailed until she fainted on the floor of the paved part.
“Sow what you dream,” read the mural on one wall. Military helicopters buzzed above.
Venezuela’s powerful interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, has just visited the border, while the new wave of Colombian troops moved into the fight against ELN.
While the sun was setting, Luz, 45, and her husband Francisco, 40, sat at the door of one of the classrooms, describing the home that left: the dirty floor, the construction of the wood, the small paved part of the yard, the rainwater collection barrel.
A few days before, while armed men broke into the region, the man arrived at the school where Francisco worked and told him he had five minutes to leave.
The couple and their two sons ran.
The Times only publishes their names, out of concern for their safety.
That night in Tibúu, Luz struggled to realize how they got there.
“All of us civilians say: What are they fighting for?” she said. “What are they looking for? What is the reason for that? “
In his office in Cúcuti, General Mario Contreras, a regional commander of the Colombian army, said the violence began with the murder of a family, which made Eln. The next day, he said, Eln entered the city centers – “because they know that people are helpless” – armed with guns and dressed as civilians, seeking suspicious associates 33.
Before the generation, Eln was so weak that he was close to extinction, beaten by the Colombian state and paramilitary. In a Recent academic workTwo researchers, Jorge Mantill and Andreas Feldmann, claimed that “support of neighboring Venezuela” is the most important factor in the “impossible recurrence of the rebels”.
Bram Ebus, a counselor for an international crisis group, said the Venecuelan government has even used ELN as an “extension” of its security forces in recent years. “We know that there is a tacit alliance at the federal level in Venezuela,” he said.
The Colombian army says that ELN fighters went through Venezuela to reach the place of their first attacks. IN Message on xSigned by the Central Command of ELN, the group called this “false news” that the Colombian government invented to justify the possible invasion of Venezuela.
The group focused its anger on the Colombian government, which she accused of united with the 33rd front to “destroy” Eln.
33. The front is a fraction of the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, or Farc, which remain in the weapon In spite of the 2016 Peace Agreement Signed by Farc and the Colombian government.
At the end of January, the Minister of Defense of Colombia traveled to Venezuel to meet with his Venezuelan counterpart and said that the two had talked “collaboration“In the capture of the leader of Eln -ai containing the group.
As the violence has been going on in recent days, something extraordinary has begun on the Tarra River, a muddy tape that shared Colombia and Venezuela. The Venezuelan has been overflowing for years, seeking refuge in Colombia. Now the flow went the other way around.
At one crossing, an improvised ferry that carried about almost 3000 people in Venezuela in the first three days of the fight.
Jackline, 42, was one of them. She wore a red skirt decorated with buttons and a blue blouse – more suitable for the church than an escape – she was with her son 7 and daughters, 17.
Jackline was displaced before violence, she said. And even though she is Colombian, she was now thinking of staying in Venezuela.
“It’s really nice there,” she said. “No war.”
Genevieve Glatsky Contribute to reporting from Bogot.
