By Geraldine Garcia |
Cucuta (Colombia) (EFE)
Cúcuta, capital of the department of Norte de Santander, has Colombia’s main border crossings with Venezuela and numerous trails through which people, contraband goods and even weapons and drugs circulate between the two countries, according to authorities.
These activities are managed by guerrillas, paramilitaries and criminal gangs that expanded their activity from the troubled region of Catatumbo, one of the largest coca producers in the country, where for years the armed conflict has forced hundreds of people to flee as displaced persons. to the regional capital.
Due to this cocktail of social problems, this metropolitan area, which encompasses the municipalities of Cúcuta, Villa del Rosario, Los Patios, El Zulia, San Cayetano and Puerto Santander, which together have about 1.2 million inhabitants, has long had high homicide rates, even higher than capitals like Cali and Medellín.
“Cúcuta, being a growing city, always had a fairly high homicide rate. Until seven years ago it was among the 50 most violent cities in the world and it has already left that list,” the commander in charge of the Cúcuta Metropolitan Police (Mecuc), Colonel Carlos Andrés García, told EFE.
Guerrilla and criminal gangs
The officer explains that among the groups operating in the area are the National Liberation Army (ELN), currently in peace negotiations with the Government; the Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan criminal gang that has spread to several South American countries, and other organizations, including FARC dissidents.
“There are four organized criminal groups. They are of the third category, which are related to local traffic, theft and crimes against citizen security. There are four groups that are disputing the pots (points of sale of drugs) », he added.
According to the colonel, intelligence reports showed that “since December there has been a territorial dispute in Catatumbo” for which members of armed groups “had to hide in Cúcuta” where it has been seen that “they are better structured than common crime, and it is where the confrontations begin.
However, the Secretary of Citizen Security of Cúcuta, Alejandro Martínez, indicated that, despite the wave of murders, until the third week of January there had been a 0.5% reduction in homicides compared to last year.
“It was a situation that occurred mainly in a range of nine days, a complex situation with many homicides,” the official told EFE, adding that the situation tends to be under control due to the action of the authorities.
a common problem
Colonel García also indicated that there are “extraterritorial” homicides, committed on the Venezuelan side of the border due to settling accounts of micro-trafficking, but the corpses are abandoned on the Colombian side.
“Last year there were 23 homicides that we had to investigate and this year, there are two, but on the border with Puerto Santander,” he added.
With the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela, materialized last year, the two countries also reactivated judicial cooperation to combat crime.
Despite the action of the authorities, the director of the NGO Fundación Progresar, Wilfredo Cañizares, warned that there is a “very serious situation of risk for the inhabitants of the rural area of Cúcuta and Puerto Santander as a result of the paramilitary expansion.”
According to Cañizares, there are more than 10,000 people from 35 villages (hamlets) located between Cúcuta and Puerto Santander who are subjugated by the paramilitary Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), also known as the Clan del Golfo.
Cañizares indicated that the AGC make their way from rural areas to stay with that border area despite the fact that this group complied with a six-month bilateral ceasefire proposed by the Government and that began on January 1.