Spanish – The Colombian guerrilla group ELN continues to gain luxuries and privileges while taking over Venezuelan territory under the complacent gaze of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
A report by journalist Sebastiana Barráez revealed that more than 170 ELN guerrillas move around freely in Seboruco, a town in Táchira, a state on the border with Colombia.
ELN llega en pequeños grupos, con combatientes y presos de diversas cárceles del país haciendo trabajo comunitario. Llegan con su cilindro de gas y alimentos.https://t.co/5VvG7auLYzhttps://t.co/rC7OxsjdzQhttps://t.co/1arQnf9Kw9https://t.co/Dhd7NXgQKT
— Sebastiana Barráez (@SebastianaSin) July 27, 2020
The guerrillas are reportedly accompanied by prisoners from various prisons in the country. Their chiefs are traveling in luxury vans and are also equipped with war weapons, “including rifles and pistols.”
“They arrive in small groups, accompanied by various combatants and prisoners from various jails in the country, whom they force to do community work,” Barráez said.
The journalist explains that Nicolás Maduro’s regime, through the official United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), is imposing the presence of guerrillas in the area. They are also demanding that the community councils organize meetings so that they can explain why they are there. They claim “to be there to help the community because they are in a state of vulnerability.”
But the presence and power of the ELN are not seen in the state of Táchira alone. The state of Apure, which also borders Colombia, is home to members and leaders of the Colombian guerrillas, including Jaime Galvis Rivera alias “Ariel,” who, according to Infobae, lives on a farm, protected by “at least three security rings.”
For the regime, the paramilitaries, the ELN, and the FARC are all defensive fronts because it does not trust the Venezuelan Army, which it has decided to gradually disempower.
The fact that members of the ELN are accompanied by prisoners in Venezuela is not surprising. It should be remembered that according to Colombian intelligence reports, the Chavista Minister of Prison Affairs in Venezuela, Iris Varela, would be the link between the Maduro regime and the Colombian rebels.
ELN is at the service of Venezuela as a paramilitary group, assuming practically the same functions as the armed collectives of Chavismo. Moreover, they have appropriated the exploitation of gold in that country with the consent of Chavismo.
According to Venezuelan deputy Américo De Grazia, the ELN has become the mining and illicit business partner of Maduro’s regime.
De Grazia has alleged that the ELN mines gold, diamonds, and coltan, processes cocaine, and is involved in the collection of bribes, extortion, and kidnapping in the states of Bolívar, Amazonas, Apure, Táchira, and Zulia.
From luxuries to illicit documentation
Javier Tarazona, a Venezuelan researcher and teacher who is in exile after having evidence of the relationship between the regime and the Colombian guerrillas, has shown evidence of the massive presence of the FARC and the ELN in Venezuelan territory.
“Since 2002, the FARC has become an alidade of those in power. On the one hand, they signed the peace agreement in Colombia, and on the other, they left for Venezuela. They left with families, properties; they bought farms in Zulia, Tachira, Apure, Bolívar, Amazonas. Colombian guerrillas are present in 17 states in Venezuela,” the specialist said.
The cars used to move the guerrillas in Venezuela are the same vehicles used by the officers of the Armed Forces.
Tarazona added that the mandate in Venezuela is to “deliver weapons to the National Liberation Army (ELN), the FARC, and the Los Pelusos gang.
In 2018, when Colombia arrested Luis Felipe Ortega Bernal, alias “Garganta,” it was discovered that the ELN leader had a false identity, Venezuelan documents, and even a Chavista national ID card, which identified him by the pseudonym “Gabriel Alberto Ariza.”
Alias “Garganta” was listed by Interpol as “a political and military command of the ELN, responsible for coordinating the execution of criminal actions in the Arauca and Amparo border corridor.”
Recently, it was also revealed that the Maduro regime granted Venezuelan nationality to Álvaro Díaz Tarazona, alias Edward, a Colombian guerrilla from the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Iván Simonovis, the special commissioner for security and intelligence of the interim presidency of Juan Guaidó, confirmed that the Colombian guerrilla chief was nationalized in Venezuela, and as proof, he showed the identity card that was granted to him with the number 25.712.140.
A consultation at the National Electoral Center (CNE) shows that the guerrilla now has the right to vote in Venezuela in the state of Apure, specifically at the Caño Regreso Bolivarian Primary School.