Venezuelan military support for the ELN could complicate relations between Petro and Maduro

Venezuelan military support for the ELN could complicate relations between Petro and Maduro

Photo: ELN

 

In an interview with La Patilla, Sebastiana Barráez, a journalist specializing in Venezuelan military affairs and organized crime issues, analyzed the geopolitical impact in Venezuela and Colombia with the announcement of the “total peace” dialogue by the new president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, that will be carried out with the armed group “Ejército de Liberation Nacional” (ELN, National Liberation Army).

By La Patilla

Sep 06, 2022

Ms. Barráez asserts that one of the perversions of Nicolás Maduro’s regime is to have allowed: the Colombian guerrilla; both the Dissident FARC and EP; the Tenth Martin Villa Front; and the Second Marquetalia, to remain in Venezuela after the Peace Agreement signed with the Colombian government in 2016.

“It has cost us a large number of dead soldiers. Not only the four soldiers assassinated in 2020, but the 16 soldiers killed between March and April of the year 2021. To speak only of the most recent, when there was a very comfortable relationship with the regime and even with Nicolás Maduro himself, inviting and summoning the FARC to  Venezuelan territory,” she added.

She thinks that the situation of the ELN and the FARC is “a hot potato for Nicolás Maduro” in the relationship with Colombia, because although it is true that President Petro is not Iván Duque, and much less Álvaro Uribe Vélez, it is also true that the new Colombian President is not going to accept tolerance with the guerrillas to permeate their territory and create problems in these areas.

“At this point I don’t know what Nicolás Maduro is going to do to be able to overcome this situation and convince the ELN to accept the peace process. The first thing that both Nicolás Maduro and the FANB should do is expel the ELN from Venezuelan territory, and also what remains of the Dissident FARC and the Second Marquetalia, so that they can solve their peace problem in Colombia and the guerrillas stop be a problem and disturbance for Venezuela,” she stressed.

Petro and the Guerrillas

Ms. Barráez recalled the existence of a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), from which a large dissident group identified as the Tenth Front, led by alias “Gentil Duarte”, and other FARC rebel factions remained active.

She also mentioned the emergence of a FARC faction, after the peace agreement, called the Second Marquetalia, commanded by Jesús Santrich and Iván Márquez among other leaders.

“Colombian President Gustavo Petro has given clear signs before the elections and now in the beginning of his presidency, of striving for a peace agreement with the organization that is legally established until now as a guerrilla group called the National Liberation Army (ELN)”, she said.

For Barráez, Colombia has two different cases: the ELN, a guerrilla recognized by its belligerence, and the FARC, a guerrilla group of dissidents, who are not recognized because they are supposed to have been part of the peace process through the Farc party. However, despite this reality, the specialist on the subject makes it clear that active guerrillas in Colombia do not suit Petro.

“One thing is that he was a guerrilla in the past (when he was very young), and another is that now he is on the opposite sidewalk, because the guerrillas really confront the government. Now, Petro is the government. Petro, more than anyone else, is interested in the peace agreements, because the pacification of the guerrilla groups means many things for Colombia and should help Venezuela, because when these groups become pacified in Colombian territory they would have no reason to be in Venezuelan territory,” explains the Venezuelan journalist.

ELN Supported by the FANB

The expert on military issues believes that both realities present in Colombia have a direct impact on Venezuelan events, not because the guerrilla groups have migrated to our country “long ago”, but rather because she considers that the National Liberation Army had never had such strength and had grown so much with more combatants, as it has done in Venezuelan territory.

“I hope that the same thing that happened with the FARC does not happen, which signed the peace agreement and most of the commanders of that organization continued to commit crimes, while settling in our territory and incorporating Venezuelans into their activities in the camps and in the drug laboratories, on the landing strips, which they have had and still have in Venezuelan territory,” she adds.

In the opinion of the specialist, although there is no written agreement between the Venezuelan regime and the ELN, in practice there is an alliance that has been manifested by the actions of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) with this subversive group when sharing joint activities.

“In the gold mines of Bolívar State and in Apure so far in 2022, the ELN has carried out the functions of confronting the Dissident FARC by expelling them from Venezuelan territory, a task that actually corresponds to the FANB and has left it in the hands of the ELN. This has been very evident, both the Venezuelan Army and the Navy, the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and the Air Force (AV) have collaborated and helped the ELN to confront the FARC in Apure,” she says.

There is No Cartel of the Suns

The Venezuelan journalist from Táchira State describes as positive the reopening of the Colombian-Venezuelan border that the current president of the neighboring country, Gustavo Petro, hopes to achieve soon.

In her opinion, the closure of the official border crossings was counterproductive, because the border strip is currently a very dangerous area. Irregular groups have contributed and fed common criminal gangs, dedicated to human trafficking, child and youth trafficking for sexual purposes.

For Barráez, the border closure has also allowed the absence of a legal figure that potentiates binational trade, which she states is in the hands of irregular Colombian and Venezuelan armed groups, protected by the military and political groups established in the border states.

“It is the best thing that can happen to both sides of the border, because from the moment the border closure materialized, the only ones who have really benefited from this decision have been the irregular armed groups that have fed on the collection (of protection/ransom) to cross people and goods from one side to the other of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. By reopening these official border crossings, the situation will be a little more regular, a little more legal, and it will allow Venezuelans and Colombians to pass through to both sides of the border with or without merchandise, with their full identification, with their passport, their record, that’s important,” she highlights.

She believes that reopening the border will allow a legal framework to be given to the events that occurred in the border area, and most importantly: to keep a legal record of the entry and exit of Venezuelans.

“The passage of Venezuelans to Colombia fleeing the crisis, seeking an exit to other countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, has contributed to the fact that it is not known who enters and who leaves the country, because currently the irregular footpaths and trails, which were previously used by criminal and irregular groups to pass contraband merchandise across the border. Over time this ended up being the normal practice, because the Venezuelan who needed to go to Colombian territory or vice versa, fell into the hands of the irregular groups and had to pay them or they would be forced to deal with them,” she says.

She denies the existence of drug cartels of a military nature operating on the border. On the contrary, she puts on record that in the border area with Colombia, there are Mexican, Colombian and Honduran cartels.

“These are cartels that, in the case of our territory, have been allowed to operate with the collaboration of the Venezuelan military. It is important to highlight this, because there has been a lot of publicity or propaganda in relation to what they call the “Cartel of the Suns”, that figure that is nothing more than gimmicky than anything else, because it does not fit the actual state, because there is not really a military cartel as such. There are military involved in drug trafficking, in the drug business, depending on the positions they hold at a given time,” she says.

Russian and Cuban Espionage

She considers that it is not out of altruism that Russia, China and Iran have supplied weapons and war equipment to Venezuela. Rather, she reveals that there have been important purchases made by Venezuela to the aforementioned countries.

“What used to be negotiated with the United States was changed. Contracts have been made with these countries for the acquisition of arms and weapons materials, in exchange for millions of dollars. This has not been a favor and it has not been free either,” she says.

She assures that espionage networks have not materialized in Venezuela through these channels. On the contrary, she alleges that espionage has traditionally been in charge of Cuba, and more recently of Russia, countries that, in her opinion, have contributed in abe  that has to do with the police and military intelligence structure in Venezuela.

“Not only in the case of Apure State, but also throughout the country, mainly in what has to do with aspects related to detecting people who at some point could be a problem for the government because they are leaders, because the government has put them under suspicion of wanting to confront the Venezuelan regime,” she points out.

She reveals that the Russian military does not stay or deploy in a particular place on the border (Apure, Táchira, Zulia and Bolívar), but rather carry out periodic activities of all kinds, especially those related to the use of drones that can last weeks.

“Then they just walk away. The Russians do not like to live on the border, they do not like to have discomforts, they like to live in comfortable hotels, to have good food, good drinks, to be in optimal conditions and not in war conditions. The Russians in Venezuelan territory are dedicated to the military area,” she emphasizes.

She regrets that there is no response within the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to what she qualifies as an “obvious interference” by the Russians and Iranians, as there was before by the Cubans, in the activities of the FANB, which she considers should be the enforcers in their own territory.

Read More: La Patilla – Venezuelan military support for the ELN could complicate relations between Petro and Maduro

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