Lawyer Rocío San Miguel, President of “Control Ciudadano” (Citizen Control) for Security, Defense and the National Armed Forces, in an interview with La Patilla, stated that the new border policies of the Petro government in Colombia are decisive in the future of Venezuela.
By La Patilla – María Eugenia Díaz
Aug 25, 2022
“Among the priorities that Petro has mentioned in his investiture speech, although he did not mention Venezuela in his words, he did point out the implementation of the peace agreement, referring to the 2016 agreement with the FARC, and of dialogues to make peace in Colombia possible, referring with particular interest the ELN (National Liberation Army),” said Ms. San Miguel.
For the specialist in military issues, this announcement will have a significant impact on the security of Venezuela, because “a large part of the dissidents and deserters of the Colombian armed groups who do not participate in these dialogues, are going to move to Venezuelan territory, just as it happened in 2017, after the signing of the peace agreement.”
In the opinion of the expert in matters of national security, the peace process in Colombia that President Petro is advancing must incorporate an axis of surveillance and monitoring with international accompaniment or cooperation, preferably from the United Nations (UN), to avoid “this landslide ” of guerrilla towards Venezuela, evidently consolidated from the year 2016 in our country.
The specialist in military issues and national security, Rocío San Miguel
“If measures are not taken to prevent the crossing of dissidents and guerrilla deserters, the conflict on the border will worsen. The ELN dissidents will repeat the FARC process that advanced into Venezuelan territory,” she added.
San Miguel warned that the joint surveillance and monitoring axis between Venezuela and Colombia, together with international accompaniment, is vital to stop arms trafficking and the installation of armed groups on the border, as happened 6 years ago with the FARC.
She explained that between 2021 and 2022 taking into account the events that have occurred in Apure, a “perverse triangulation on the border” has become evident, which affects the civilian population, because these criminal organizations use human subjugation so that the inhabitants of the border betray the activities of some other guerrilla groups.”
Guerrilla Migration
A Colombian soldier was recorded last Friday while monitoring the crossing of Venezuelan migrants from La Victoria, in Venezuela, to Arauquita, in Arauca Dept. (Colombia). EFE/Jebrail Mosquera Contreras
“The activities of the ELN are not punished, but the “Dissident FARC” that have decided to act with a high profile are punished, which raises serious doubts about the actions of the Venezuelan National Armed Forces. In 2017, after the peace agreements with the Farc, the ELN and the armed groups left outside the law that resulted from these dissidences, they reached a tactical agreement that allowed the ELN to expand around the Orinoco. There was a kind of mutual respect for a couple of years that was broken in 2021, when the events in Apure occurred, caused by the conflict between the Dissident FARC, other residual groups and the consolidation of the ELN’s actions. This created very strong tensions, in which it is clearly evident that the ELN does not agree with the high-profile actions of the Dissident FARC, especially with the Second Marquetalia (front),” she added.
It is estimated that there are more than 7,000 armed people in Colombia (among the ELN, the Dissident FARC, the “Clan del Golfo”, “Los Pelusos”), not including other support networks for these groups (militiamen or residual combatants). Of that total, 30% (about 2,000 people) are permanently in Venezuela. However, Rocío San Miguel believes that the dimension of these criminal structures could be much greater, because they are closely linked to drug trafficking.
“It is an undeniable reality the growth of the foot of force of armed groups outside the law in the national territory (Venezuela), operating around drug trafficking and other illegal trafficking that occurs on the border. Nicolás Maduro is responsible as President of the Republic and of the National Armed Forces, at least by omission, for not acting in the terms required by the defense of the national territory,” the expert warned.
Arms Trafficking on the Border
Colombian Navy soldiers stand guard near the Arauca River, the natural border with Venezuela, in Arauquita, Colombia. March 26, 2021.
San Miguel views with concern the high level of arms trafficking on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, taking as a reference the confiscations of ammunition and weapons that occurred in central states of the country such as Aragua and Falcón, destined to the states of Apure and Bolívar.
“Something is happening, there is an internal traffic of arms and ammunition whose final destination is Apure and Bolívar, obviously to feed the armed groups outside the law. But the question is: Where are those weapons and ammunition coming from? Are they getting out of legal gun stocks? This obviously happens, because they have a very strong client that operates from Bolívar and Apure,” she stated.
In this regard, she urged the authorities to pay more attention to this issue, because Venezuela had never been a country of ammunition and arms trafficking. “This is beginning to happen, which can give us an indication of the strengthening of the foot of force of these armed groups outside the law, especially in the territories of Apure and Bolívar.”
She recalled that this reality was generated residually. “The origin of illegal weapons was the supply by the armed groups in Colombia, who procured their own weapons. Now there is internal traffic.”
This may mean that some sectors of the National Armed Forces are involved in such trafficking, a hypothesis that is subject to investigation to find out the point of origin of this unusual volume of weapons and ammunition, because to carry out these actions some type of complicity is required at the highest level.
The second hypothesis could be that weapons and ammunition are entering the country through international channels, which results in a more complicated scenario.
“If you have an arms supplier who has a buyer who pays you. Why are you going to look around for other buyers who can confiscate your merchandise? Russia and Venezuela do not need to cover up their strategic alliance of buying and selling weapons systems. It is already in the open, because it has been our supplier of powerful weapons since 2005, then comes China.”
For San Miguel, looking for partners to sell weapons is just too complicated. “The logical notion is the profitable hypothesis is production and storage of legal arsenals of weapons of the police and the FAN (National Armed Forces), who have the legal right to have weapons and ammunition in their hands. This is much more logical. We have a very high level of illegal economies in the border states,” she added.
The expert stressed that arms trafficking could be becoming one of the illegal economies in the very near future, with a high profit margin in the border area. “If precautions are not taken to monitor the consequences of the peace agreements, the ones Petro aspires to reach, there may be perverse effects on Venezuela,” she said.
Military Alliances
Colombian soldiers patrol near the Arauca river in the Arauquita Municipality, Arauca Department, Colombia, on March 25, 2021. – More than 3,000 people have fled to Colombia to escape clashes that broke out over the weekend in Venezuela between their military personnel and suspected Dissident FARC, officials in Bogota said Wednesday. Venezuela’s military clashed with the group near the Colombian border on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of two military personnel and the capture of 32 Colombian “insurgents,” according to the Venezuelan Armed Forces. (Photo by Daniel Fernándo MARTINEZ CERVERA / AFP)
The Russians are strategic military allies of Venezuela, just like China, as declared by Hugo Chávez since 2003. “The largest purchase of military arsenal made by Venezuela in its entire history, has been made to those two countries,” recalled San Miguel.
In a more subsidiary place of purchase, is Iran, where not so many budget expenditures have been reported. The military advisory alliance and other areas (political-strategic) are in charge of Cuba.
“All the movements of the National Armed Forces and all the employment doctrine and all its activities are impacted by these strategic agreements. The weapons used throughout the national territory are also used to combat these groups,” she said.
Russian military-technical cooperation operates at the highest level in Venezuela and provides for the exchange and presence of technicians in the national territory, who are empowered to move around Venezuela, in order to supervise the operation of weapons systems, such as it is established by the agreements signed between Venezuela and Russia.
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