VENEZUELA - COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Rule Border Area
SAN ANTONIO DEL TÁCHIRA, Venezuela, Dec 20 2009 (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.
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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.”
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“Here, almost everyone pays a ‘tax’ to the paramilitary mafias. This bakery where we’re having a coffee pays one for sure, the ice cream place across the street too, the same as all the stores on this block,” said Roberto, another local resident and member of a political party that backs Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
One of the town’s main streets runs directly onto the Simón Bolívar bridge, which connects Venezuela and Colombia across the Táchira River (reduced to a trickle during the current dry season). The narrow bridge carries an endless flow of cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians between the two countries, as border guards on both sides look on with apparent indifference.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2009/12/venezuela-colombia-paramilitaries-rule-border-area/
RW paramilitary groups in Colombia
Right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia are the parties responsible for most of the human rights violations in the latter half of the ongoing Colombian Armed Conflict. According to several international human rights and governmental organizations, right-wing paramilitary groups have been responsible for at least 70 to 80% of political murders in Colombia per year, with the remainder committed by leftist guerrillas and government forces. Paramilitary groups control the large majority of the illegal drug trade of cocaine and other substances together with the main Colombian drug cartels, especially in terms of trafficking and processing activities. The first paramilitary groups were organized by the Colombian military following recommendations made by U.S. military counterinsurgency advisers who were sent to Colombia during the Cold War to combat leftist political activists and armed guerrilla groups. The development of later paramilitary groups has also involved elite landowners, drug traffickers, members of the security forces, politicians and multinational corporations. Paramilitary violence today is principally targeted towards peasants, unionists, indigenous people, human rights workers, teachers and left-wing political activists or their supporters. The paramilitaries claim to be acting in opposition to revolutionary Marxist-Leninist guerrilla forces and their allies among the civilian population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramilitarism_in_Colombia10 June 2013
Venezuela arrests Colombians over Maduro assassination plot
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22850494
The Venezuelan government says it has arrested nine Colombian right-wing paramilitaries who were plotting to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.
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Mr Maduro on Sunday posted a message on Twitter saying his government faced "a plot the fascist right supported by violent groups in Colombia".
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The first group, with alleged links to the Rastrojos paramilitary organisation, was arrested in western
Tachira state, Mr Rodriguez said.
The six people arrested were named as Elisa Cruz, Pedro Araujo, Arlington Miranda, Jose Israel Echavez, Javier Rodriguez and Giovani Sala.
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