The year started in the worst way in Arauca, a department in the eastern Colombian plains that borders Venezuela.
Historically an area run by guerrillas, last week saw the massacre of 27 people.
In many towns of Arauca, the graffiti of the ELN guerrilla are interspersed on the façade with those of the FARC, in a historical display of the insurgencies to make it clear that they are still there, that they have never left.
Meanwhile, the state is only absence. Roads are muddy in torrential rains, health centers are underserved and children have to travel miles to go to school.
Distrust in the inhabitants of Arauca
The distrust of the Araucanian population with the security forces was forged over three decades.
When faced with his demand for improvements, they entered overwhelming the Protestants.
Likewise, before the request for protection, the Police and the Army limited themselves to entrench themselves around the Caño Limón oil field and the pipeline that goes to the Caribbean, protecting the interests of foreign oil companies.
On January 2, lifeless bodies began to be found in various rural areas of the municipalities of Tame, Fortul, Arauquita and Saravena.
At first, there was talk of an armed confrontation between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and a dissident from the FARC, the 10th Front.
27 bodies were found and the Prosecutor’s Office assured that the shots they had were fired at close range.
For what would surely be executions, probably the work of the ELN. “There were no combats,” says the attorney general, Francisco Barbosa.
Forced displacement
They were alleged members of the dissidents or the logistical networks of the 10th Front, led by a former FARC middle command, Jorge Eliécer Jiménez Martínez, alias “Jerónimo” or “Arturo.”
In addition, it is believed that it is coordinated by the national dissidents of alias “Gentil Duarte”, including relatives or neighbors. There are also two minors.
“They were people who were forced to leave their homes by armed men, some taken to Venezuela, assassinated, later transferred to Colombian territory,” Barbosa said, in statements to Blu radio last Friday. The Ombudsman’s Office also denounced the forced displacement of 88 families.
Arauca was and continues to be the great ELN stronghold in Colombia.
It is considered that between 60% and 70% of its troops are found there or in the Venezuelan part.
There they fought (and won) regarding 20 years ago a battle once morest the paramilitaries, once morest the Army and also once morest the FARC for control of the territory.
Coexistence manual
Out of that guerrilla war, between 2004 and 2010, which left half a thousand civilians dead, came a “coexistence manual” where the ELN and the FARC agreed to respect their territories.
This remained firm following the demobilization of the FARC.
«AraucaUnlike other places where the FARC have demobilized, it had not experienced violent dynamics of territorial reconfiguration as in other parts of the country, ”explains armed conflict researcher Andrés Aponte to Efe. And one of the reasons is precisely this “coexistence manual.”
However, in recent months several factors have come together: poor diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela have rendered border controls and patrols non-existent.
This left the borders even more porous and made Venezuela a unique haven for gangs.
A situation that has allowed the 10th Front to grow.
Expansive bets
This border area also served as a hiding place for the Second Marquetalia, commanded by the negotiator of the peace agreement alias “Iván Márquez.”
Which has suffered notable casualties in the last year such as those of “Jesús Santrich”, “Romaña” and “El Paisa”.
“That has allowed (the 10th Front) not only to rearm and reposition itself in that scenario (…), but also to develop a series of expansive bets on areas formerly dominated by the extinct guerrilla,” explains Aponte, coordinator of the book “Why what is so difficult to negotiate with the ELN? ».
This expansion has also resulted in the assassination of ELN middle commanders.
“Without a doubt, I think that all these events forced the ELN to act in defense of its territorial dominions so that ‘that dwarf does not grow up,” the researcher continues.
Willing to confrontation
In communiqués from the 10th Front “Martín Villa” they wanted to make it clear that “it was not the FARC-EP that started this confrontation.”
But they were “ready for confrontation.”
The violence seemed stifled on January 5, but the dissidents warned: “We have ordered all our units, urban and combatants, that everything that is sympathetic, military, political leadership, communal, with the ELN will be a military objective (sic).”
“Without a doubt, compensation will be expected,” predicts Aponte.
He indicated that he sees two upcoming scenarios, one of “tense calm”, where the civilian population is subjected to “threats or even assassinations.”
And another where “the scene is out of whack” and there is direct armed action, which neither of the two guerrillas is interested in.
“But if a domain has to be defined or decanted, it will be done through war,” he laments.
