VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Rule Border Area

[Judi Lynn]

VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Rule Border Area
By Humberto Márquez

Simón Bolívar Bridge

Credit:Humberto Márquez/IPS

SAN ANTONIO DEL TÁCHIRA, Venezuela, Dec 20 (IPS) - "We’re second-class citizens, victims of a war that hasn’t broken out," said José Duque from behind the wheel of a car carrying passengers from San Cristóbal, in southwestern Venezuela, to the border with the northeastern region of Colombia, near the city of Cúcuta.

Along the way, winding through the Andes mountains 700 kilometres southwest of Caracas, gasoline stations are besieged by endless lines of vehicles, whose drivers are resigned to waiting two, three, even four hours to fill their tanks.

Duque has a list of complaints almost as long as the gas line-ups. "Where I live we have blackouts for several hours every night. A lot of days we have no running water. When you make a living on these highways you’re in constant danger of getting robbed, or being forced to pay bribes. And on top of everything, this oil-exporting country sabotages our work by rationing gasoline."

Gasoline is a source of massive cross-border smuggling activity. Authorities in both countries estimate that more than 10,000 barrels (1.6 million litres) are smuggled daily from Venezuela into Colombia, where gasoline is sold at 15, 20 or 25 times the price in Venezuela, which has the world's cheapest gasoline.

A community leader from the city of San Antonio del Táchira, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Carlos, told IPS that Colombian "mafias" like the Black Eagles, made up of former members of far-right paramilitary groups in Colombia, "have controlled the smuggling of gasoline, food and plastic products from Venezuela to Colombia for years, and also the smuggling of goods from there to here."

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49760

As we know, the paras have deep ties to the Colombian government, going back for years, made clear in statements rom various groups like Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, and many others. Incidently, human rights workers themselves are targets in Colombia.

[Braulio]

1. The Farc are a lot worse in the region

The truth is the FARC are a lot worse in the border areas, and operate within Venezuela.

[Peace Patriot]

2. "A lot worse" in what respect? Amnesty International attributes 92% of the murders of union leaders

to the Colombian military (about half) and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads (the other half), and only 2% to the FARC. The recent UN human rights report attributes 75% of the overall extra-judicial murders (union leaders and all others) to the same parties--the Colombian military and its death squads (in the same proportion).

How is this different "in the border areas"? Please explain and cite sources if you can.

With death squads and gangs tied to the Colombian military and government--and protected by them--operating along the Colombia/Venezuela border, it is no surprise that Colombia's conflicts and crime, and its Forever War--a civil war that has been going on for 40+ years--spills over into Venezuela. I think you are touting the line that will be used to manufacture the "Gulf of Tonkin"-type incident, for a US/Colombian attack on Venezuela--that they're "just pursuing the FARC over the border." The FARC are a great boon to the Colombian government and to US war profiteers. It has so far netted $6 BILLION in US taxpayer dollars into their pockets. And they have already rehearsed violating Venezuela's border with bombings and raids using the FARC as an excuse, back in March 2008, when they did the same to Ecuador.

Venezuela has suffered an influx of some 50,000 Colombian refugees, mostly fleeing from the Colombian military and its death squads and gangs; also fleeing from US toxic pesticide spraying. This is a big headache for Venezuela, which--unlike Colombia--has social justice policies that require feeding, housing and caring for refugees. There are 2 to 3 million of these displaced people within Colombia, according to human rights groups estimates--the second worst crisis of displaced people on earth. Ecuador has also seen a huge influx of these refugees. And this, too, contributes to the chaos in the border areas--which appears to me to be a deliberate policy of the Colombian government.

Chaos = opportunity--that was Rumsfeld's policy in Iraq. Freedom = the freedom to loot. Thus, you pit tribe against tribe, destroy public services, abolish the rule of law, create fallow ground for Blackwater black ops, permit "turkey shoots" of civilians, terrorize everybody with torture and various kinds of insecurity, all the better to steal a country's resources and batter them into submission.

I see the same rancid, wildly unlawful 'philosophy' of war at work in Colombia, the Pentagon's "best friend" in Latin America.