Caracas – One person was killed and at least five injured in clashes between Venezuela’s National Guard and guerrillas from neighboring Colombia in western Venezuela, a prominent NGO active in the area told AFP on Wednesday.
Fundaredes, which monitors human rights violations in border states, said the clashes took place in the municipality of Junin near the Colombian border, where the National Liberation Army (ELN) has a major presence.
Fundaredes President Javier Tarazona said the injured were taken to Rubio, a few kilometers away in Tachira state.
The ELN is one of several armed groups that engage in drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling along Venezuela and Colombia’s porous 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile) border.
On Tuesday, the US Embassy in Colombia warned US citizens against travelling to the border department of Norte de Santander, or within 10 km (5 miles) of any part of the Venezuelan border, citing an “elevated risk of attacks” by the ELN and other armed groups.
Colombia’s US-backed new right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella has taken the fight to the ELN since coming to power in August.
Four days after his inauguration, he ordered airstrikes on its positions.
The ELN, which is one of 24 Latin American criminal organizations in President Donald Trump’s sights, has responded with deadly drone and bomb attacks on the security forces.
Tarazona said De la Espriella’s crackdown on guerrillas in the border region had caused a “large-scale movement of these groups into Venezuela.”
Ousted former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was accused, during his years in power, of offering the left-wing Colombian rebels sanctuary on Venezuelan soil.
At a meeting in New York last week, Colombia and 14 other Latin American members of Trump’s right-wing “Shield of the Americas” agreed to impose asset freezes and visa restrictions and seek criminal liability for both members and supporters of the ELN and 23 other criminal groups.
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Source: AFP
