BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A prominent human rights group said Wednesday that rebel groups in Colombia committed “grave abuses” against civilians as they fight for control of the Catatumbo, a resource-rich region along Colombia’s border with Venezuela.
In a 12-page report, Human Rights Watch accused the rebels of executing unarmed farmers and forcibly recruiting dozens of children into their ranks. The group also called on Colombia’s government to speed up investigations into homicides in Catatumbo, where at least 78 people were killed in January and February, after a truce ended between rebel groups in the area.
“Our research points to widespread abuses against ordinary people,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director for HRW.
According to the Colombian Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, more than 56,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the Catatumbo region since Jan. 16, when the National Liberation Army, or ELN, launched a violent campaign to strengthen its grip on the area.
Human Rights Watch said that in some villages, the rebels dragged people out of their homes and shot those who they accused of being collaborators of a rival group known as the FARC-EMC.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 65 people for its investigation, including judicial officials, aid workers and displaced farmers.
“It seems that the ELN is trying to control the border with Venezuela, partly due to the drug trade,” said Juan Pappier, Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Americas. “And for that they’ve long benefited from the complicity of Venezuelan security forces.”
Some people who fled the Catatumbo region told Human Rights Watch that the ELN executed farmers in front of their families.
Others accused the FARC-EMC group of running forced labor camps, where local people who were accused of committing crimes were forced to cut sugar cane for more than 12 hours a day.
Human Rights Watch urged Colombia’s Attorney General’s office to increase the number of prosecutors and investigators in the Catatumbo region, and to provide protection for them, so that these crimes can be further investigated.
The Colombian government suspended peace talks with the ELN on Jan. 20, after news emerged of the ELN’s attacks on several villages in Catatumbo.
President Gustavo Petro, who was a member of a rebel group during his youth, has accused the ELN’s leadership of becoming “greedy” drug traffickers and of abandoning their revolutionary ideals.
Violence decreased in Colombia following a 2016 peace deal with the nation’s largest rebel group, FARC, in which more than 13,000 fighters laid down their weapons.
But some isolated areas, including the Catatumbo region, have seen an uptick in homicides, extorsion and forced displacement, as smaller groups fight for control of territories abandoned by the FARC.
The National Liberation Army, has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Venezuela and Colombia, according to Colombia’s Ministry of Defense.
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