Bogota, Colombia (AP) – Colombia’s insurgent groups have committed “great abuse” against civilians, fighting to control Catatumbo, a resource-rich area on Colombia’s border with Venezuela, a prominent human rights group said Wednesday.
In a 12-page report, Human Rights Watch accused the rebels of executing unarmed farmers and forced dozens of children to join them. The group also called on the Colombian government to speed up investigations into the Catatumbo homicide, with at least 78 people killed in January and February after the armistice between rebel groups in the region.
“Our research shows that abuse of the common people is widespread,” said Juanita Goebertus, director of America at HRW.
According to the Colombian Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, the National Liberation Army or the ELN launched a violent campaign to strengthen its grasp of the region on January 16, has been displaced from homes in the Catatumbo region.
Human Rights Watch said in some villages, rebels dragged people out of their homes and shot them allegedly collaborators of rival groups, known as FARC-EMC.
Human Rights Watch investigated 65 people, including judicial officials, aid workers and displaced farmers.
“It seems that the ELN is trying to control the border with Venezuela, partly because of the drug dealing,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director of the American Human Rights Watch. “For this, they have long benefited from the accomplices of Venezuelan security forces.”
Some people fleeing the Catatumbo area told Human Rights Watch that ELN executed farmers in front of their families.
Others blamed the forced labor camps of the Colombian-level Revolutionary Armed Forces group, where locals were charged with crimes and forced sugarcane for more than 12 hours a day.
Human Rights Watch urges the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to increase the number of prosecutors and investigators in the Catatumbo area and provide them with protection so that the crimes can be investigated further.
The Colombian government suspended peace talks with ELN on January 20 after news broke that ELN attacks on several villages in Catatumbo.
President Gustavo Petro, a member of the rebel group at a young age, accused the ELN leader of becoming a “greedy” drug trafficker and abandoning its revolutionary ideals.
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But as smaller groups fight to control the territories abandoned by the revolutionary armed laws, some of the isolated areas, including the Catatumbo area, rise in homicides, hatred and forced displacement.
According to the Colombian Ministry of Defense, the National Liberation Army is estimated to have 6,000 fighter jets in Venezuela and Colombia.
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