{"id":2400,"date":"2018-02-11T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2400"},"modified":"2018-02-11T14:00:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T14:00:44","slug":"dissidence-of-colombian-guerrillas-penetrate-the-venezuelan-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/dissidence-of-colombian-guerrillas-penetrate-the-venezuelan-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"Dissidence of Colombian Guerrillas Penetrate the Venezuelan Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

His \r\nreal name is Miguel D\u00edaz Sanmartin, but everyone knows him as \"Juli\u00e1n Chollo\", \r\nhis alias from when he joined the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of \r\nColombia (FARC) in 1996, when he was just 20 years old. If it were not for his \r\nstrong accent and the olive uniform without insignia that he wears even after \r\nhaving separated from the peace agreement signed by the guerrilla group in \r\nNovember 2016 with the Government of Juan Manuel Santos, he would seem one of \r\nthe natives of the Venezuelan Amazon, a state bordering with Colombia, where \r\nJulian controls everything that goes in, is produced and comes out of the \r\nillegal gold mines devouring the heart of Yapacana National \r\nPark.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Despite \r\nof the security force that follows him everywhere, Julian is perceived as a \r\n\"lone wolf\", which, in addition to his career as a former guerrilla, helped him \r\ngenerate fear and respect among those who know him or have just heard about \r\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n

Short, \r\nof mixed race and slanted eyes, characteristic of the indigenous descendants of \r\nthe scroungers who inhabited El Dovio, a municipality at the south-west of \r\nColombia, Julian began his guerrilla career in Front 40 Jacobo Arenas and then \r\nin Acacio Medina, where he hardly appeared in 2012 in the charts as a fourth \r\n\"replacement\", without changing position again. Despite having had a medium \r\ncommand in the guerrillas, his name resonated when the Central Chief of Staff of \r\nFARC expelled him from the organization along with four commanders who led the \r\ndissidents \"for contradicting the political line\" of what was now a \r\nparty.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

G\u00e9ner \r\nGarc\u00eda Molina, alias \"John 40\", the highest commander of Acacio Medina Front; \r\nMiguel Santanilla Botache, alias \"Gentil Duarte\"; Ernesto Orjuela Tovar, alias \r\n\"Giovanni Chuspas\", head of Front 16; and N\u00e9stor Gregorio Vera Fern\u00e1ndez, alias \r\n\"Iv\u00e1n Mordisco\", commander of the First Front, are the four renegades who, \r\ntogether with Juli\u00e1n Chollo, turned their backs on the peace process in Colombia \r\nand lead the criminal reorganization of the guerrilla dissidence. These five \r\nmen, with over 20 years of career and extensive military knowledge, have \r\nsomething in common, all led fronts of the Eastern Bloc, the financial structure \r\nof FARC linked to coca production, the axis of this guerrilla movement from 1993 \r\nto 2002, when it was at its best.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Heritage<\/h2>\n\n\n

\"At \r\nfirst, they entered Venezuelan territory looking for refuge (...) The guerrillas \r\nwas present, especially of FARC, from the mouth of the Meta river to Cerro el \r\nCocuy on the border with Brazil,\" says indigenous Baniva Liborio Guarulla \r\nGarrido, Governor for 17 years - until October 2017 - of the Amazonas State. \"It \r\nwas so evident that one had to attend indigenous communities on both sides. \r\nSometimes we had to see their flags, their troops and there was no problem, \r\nuntil Uribe arrived.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

\u00c1lvaro \r\nUribe V\u00e9lez won the presidency of Colombia thanks to his promise to \"restore \r\npeace in Colombia\" with a government program called \"democratic security\" \r\npolicy, focused on regaining control of the territory and attacking the \r\nguerrillas\u2019 rearguard. It was 2002 when the new security policy\u2014financially \r\nsupported by the United States of America through \"Plan Colombia\"\u2014 guaranteed \r\nthe deployment of a military offensive that intensified the attacks on the \r\ninsurgent positions and provided the Colombian Government a tactical victory on \r\nthe main guerrilla hotspots, until their \r\nwithdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
\u00c1lvaro Uribe V\u00e9lez, president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

This \r\nforced insurgents to diversify their portfolio of criminal economies which, \r\nfortunately for them, coincided with the increase in international prices for \r\ngold and raw materials, thus making illegal mining an important source of \r\nfinancing. From 2007 to 2012 only, illegal gold mining had grown in Colombia \r\ninversely to the cultivated hectares of coca leaf, which, according to the \r\nUnited Nations, had dropped from almost 99,000 in 2007 to around 47,000 in 2012. \r\nGold displaced drug trafficking as the most profitable business for guerrillas \r\nand organized crime.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

It \r\nwas then, between 2011 and 2012, when a large FARC camp was seen on the banks of \r\nthe San Miguel river in Maroa municipality, which according to Guarulla, moved \r\nto the Javita Maroa highway, where they established an airport larger than the \r\nvillage airport, \"It even had lighting for the night\", he \r\nrecalls.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Baniva Liborio Guarulla Garrido, Amazonas state governor for 17 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Intelligence \r\nrecords in Colombia agree with Guarulla's version. On June 10, 2011, in the \r\nvillage of Danubio, municipality of Puerto Rico, department of Caquet\u00e1, a \r\nmeeting was held with the participation of commanders Mauricio Jaramillo \"El \r\nM\u00e9dico\" \u2014member of FARC secretariat, who assumed the leadership of the Eastern \r\nBloc after the death of \"Mono Jojoy\"\u2014 and the now dissident Gentil Duarte and \r\nJhon 40. In the meeting, the creation of the Acacio Medina Front was agreed with \r\nthe aim to oxygenate the weakened Front 16 that had 360 combatants in 2002 and \r\njust 76 in 2011. The creation of the Acacio Medina Front was made official in \r\n2012 on the banks of San Miguel River in the municipality of Maroa, Venezuelan \r\nterritory, with Jhon 40 as ringleader.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Starts the displacement from the municipalities of Puerto Rico, department of Meta, through San Jos\u00e9 del Guaviare, area of the Seventh Front, El Retorno, Calamar, Miraflores and then they cross the municipality of Puerto In\u00edrida and Cumaribo, Area of Front 16, ending at the border with Venezuela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

The \r\nexploration of the Acacio Medina in Venezuela then connected with the Casiquiare \r\nRiver, a body of water of 326 kilometers (202.56 miles) that is a tributary of \r\nthe Orinoco River. In its advance, the Acacio Medina penetrated the Atabapo \r\nRiver and took control of the gold deposits on the grounds of Yapacana National \r\nPark.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nobjectives of the Acacio Medina Front were financial and by then, it had already \r\nventured into gold and coltan mines in the neighboring municipality of Guain\u00eda \r\nof Colombia, where mining activity dates back to half a decade. In mid-2015 and \r\naccording to a Colombian police report prepared after executing \"Operaci\u00f3n \r\nArp\u00f3n,\" the front had about 150 troops, fifty in Colombia and the rest in \r\nVenezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"FARC said to itself, 'we may be able to exploit new criminal economies, we have a government that gives us shelter and refuge'\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n

Eduardo \r\n\u00c1lvarez Venegas \u2014Director of the Armed Conflict Dynamics and Peace Negotiations \r\nIdeas for Peace Foundation (FIP), a Colombian NGO that studies the path of \r\ndissidence since the signing of the peace agreement\u2014 explains that the creation \r\nof the Acacio Medina Front was part of a finance and border policy strategy that \r\nwas born at the eighth meeting held in April 1993 in Guaviare, where FARC \r\ndesigned a FARC war economy plan to diversify its finances and a possible \r\nstrategic retreat to other countries.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Although \r\nit was implemented much later, the investigator indicates that FARC found in \r\nVenezuela a favorable government for that retreat. \"FARC said to itself, 'we may \r\nbe able to exploit new criminal economies, we have a government that gives us \r\nshelter and refuge'. As a result, there began to be some sort of adaptation to \r\nthe military strategy of the Colombian Government, which clearly managed to \r\nstrategically defeat FARC guerrillas, though not tactically. That was part of \r\nthe acceptance that allowed them to sit down to talk in Havana, but part of \r\nbeing tactically afloat was to create structures such as the Acacio Medina Front \r\nto ensure other spaces still far from any type of state and military \r\nintervention in terms of territorial control,\" he says.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Relevant \r\ninformation about Juli\u00e1n Chollo, the boss at the Yapacana mines - within the \r\ndistributions of duties of the year when Acacio Medina was created -, is the \r\ncontrol he had over a tungsten mine in Guain\u00eda, a potential material to \r\nmanufacture machines and power devices.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

A Perfect Marriage<\/h2>\n\n\n

Cerro \r\nYapacana National Park is located in the southwestern sector of the Guiana \r\nShield, in the central-western region of the Amazonas state. In the 230-thousand \r\nhectare natural reserve - established as a protected area since 1978 for its \r\ngreat scenic and scientific value -, live more than 8 thousand Venezuelans, \r\nColombians, Brazilians and Ecuadorians, who exploit day and night seven gold \r\ndeposits named Cacique, La 40, La 44, La 50, Fibral, Jerusalem and Moyo (the \r\noldest and largest).<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Cerro Yapacana National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

As \r\nrevealed by an action taken in 2017 by the Ombudsman's Office of In\u00edrida in \r\nColombia, following a miner displacement that resulted in the activation of an \r\norange alert in that municipality, at just 40 minutes from San Fernando de \r\nAtabapo. At least 600 people walked through the jungle to be safe in In\u00edrida. \r\nSome papers threw from a military plane that urged them to take action ended up \r\nbeing interpreted as a future bombing of the mines, which prompted thousands of \r\npeople to walk for days and nights on improvised trails to avoid the \r\nrequisitions and extortion in Venezuelan military checkpoints set out in the \r\nwaterways.<\/p>\n\n\n

The mines are a sort of livelihood for families. There are no opportunities here other than working for the Government.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n

Different \r\nversions emerged as reasons for the eviction of the mine, but two previous \r\nevents registered in the state yielded to the idea about the strong pressure put \r\nby the Venezuelan central government inside the security forces: the \r\ndisappearance for over four months of an MI17V5 helicopter with 13 people on \r\nboard, including five civilians and a 4-year-old boy, and the assault on a \r\nmilitary checkpoint in \"El Suspiro\" area of the Orinoco River, by men identified \r\nas members of FARC, who took arms and cell phones presumably as a revenge for a \r\nseizure made by troops of the Bolivarian National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nexploitation of Venezuelan gold has employed thousands of Colombians for several \r\ndecades. Juli\u00e1n Mancera, head of the Colombia Migration office in Puerto \r\nIn\u00edrida, explains it. \"The mines are a sort of livelihood for families. There \r\nare no opportunities here other than working for the Government. Those who have \r\nmoney suddenly start a business or something like that, but there is no \r\nemployment generation. Hence, the mine becomes the only \r\nlivelihood.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Sitting \r\nat his dark mahogany desk, with the logo of the Mayor\u2019s Office of In\u00edrida, \r\naccompanied by the phrase \u201cstarting to believe,\u201d behind him, Camilo Andr\u00e9s \r\nPuentes Garz\u00f3n, the youngest mayor in the history of that Colombian \r\nmunicipality, smiles and says bluntly, \"The truth is that Colombian people live, \r\nwork and exploit a mine in Venezuela. We know, and they tell us, that they make \r\npayment agreements or better known here as payment of \u201cvacunas\u201d (vaccines) to be \r\nable to work, pass elements and extract gold from \r\nthere.\"<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Camilo Andr\u00e9s Puentes Garz\u00f3n, Mayor of the Mayor\u2019s Office of In\u00edrida, a Colombian municipality bordering the state of Amazonas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

But \r\nhe does not miss the opportunity to make a unanimous complaint that constantly \r\nand silently resonates as the murmur of the wind in the Amazon jungle, among all \r\nthe inhabitants of both sides of the border \u2014 the evident marriage between the \r\nirregular groups and the Venezuelan authorities.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nWho mediates between the Venezuelan authorities and the \r\nminers?<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nThey tell us that the guerrillas supposedly protect them from the guard, that \r\nthey are the ones who directly negotiate. \"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nThe guerrillas have control of the mines?<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nThey have control of the mines.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nWhich guerrilla group?<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nFARC.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nDissidents?<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

- \r\nYes, dissidents, because FARC is over. Although that is very simple; they \r\nchanged the bracelet and now they can be called ELN - he pauses before finishing \r\nand adds \u2013 I will tell you something. The army here will end the dissidence, but \r\nif they are in Venezuela, it is impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n

Recruiting among Trails<\/h2>\n\n\n

In \r\nAtabapo, 90% of the population is indigenous and lives in poverty, a \r\nvulnerability that has been integrated into the economy around the mine, in \r\naddition to the burden of the environmental impact and disruption of daily \r\nactivities.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Camilo \r\nSilva, a retired educator and captain of the San Juan de Puruname community in \r\nPiau\u00e1, is 61 years old and faces the situation by trying to convince young \r\npeople not to abandon their economic practices, like small farms and fishing, \r\nurging them to participate in the economy of the mine with the sale of its \r\nproducts. Together with one of his sons, he created a tourist cooperative that \r\npromotes sport fishing in the Atabapo River, but in 2017, the camp received just \r\ntwo groups of national tourists. \"Foreign tourists stopped visiting the state \r\ndue to insecurity.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

This \r\ninsecurity is generated by the certainty that the territory is taken by former \r\nColombian guerrillas with extensive experience in kidnapping and crimes against \r\ncivilians. But inside the mine, the guerrilla is a source of fear because it \r\nrepresents order and law. \"They are FARC guerrillas who have control over the \r\nmine, but not even a needle gets lost in there,\" says Junior, a 19-year-old \r\nColombian who worked in the mine attending a food \r\nstall.<\/p>\n\n