Clashes between Colombian Military, Los Urabenos and ELN Displace Thousands

nsnbc : A new round of clashes between Colombian military forces, the right-wing paramilitary Los Urabenos, and the left-wing guerrilla ELN displaced at least 3,000 in northwestern Colombia. The clashes erupted after the recent announcement that official peace talks between the ELN and the government would start in May, and a subsequent campaign launched by Los Urabenos.

ELN fighters_Colombia_(archives)

ELN guerrilla (archives)

In early April Los Urabenos, a.k.a. Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) launched what it described as an economic and transportation lockdown of swaps of northern Colombia. The total lockdown lasted for days only, but clashes and fighting has persisted.

The right-wing paramilitary’s campaign was launched shortly after it was announced that the second-largest leftist guerrilla, Colombia’s National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) and the Colombian government would launch official peace talks, parallel to the already ongoing peace talks between the government and the largest leftist guerrilla, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Peoples’ Army (FARC-EP).

The government and the ELN agreed to launch the peace talks in May.

The escalation led to clashes between Los Urabenos and the ELN and the FARC-EP in northern Colombia and in the western Choco province.

Los Urabenos declared transportation lockdown earlier this month.

Los Urabenos declared transportation lockdown earlier this month.

The escalation of violence by Los Urabenos also led to a row between the government and the FARC-EP when the government commented on the lockdown, claiming that “there are no right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia”.

The FARC-EP, for its part, insisted that the Colombian government crack down on Los Urabenos because they would pose a severe threat to members of the FARC-EP and political activists, once the FARC-EP had been transformed from a para-military into a non-armed political organization.

Technically, Santos’ statement may be correct. Los Urabenos are neo-paramilitaries and a successor of the AUC which were demobilized in 2006.

President Juan Manuel Santos  has chosen not to designate them as paramilitaries or neo-paramilitaries but as “common criminals”. It is a question of semantics more than it is a practical question. The designation is mainly used for domestic consumption.

Santos has, within an international context, agreed with the FARC-EP, the ELN, the UN, as well as the U.S. administration that the greatest threat to Colombia’s security and to peace, today, emerges from right-wing neo-paramilitaries and from drug traffickers.

The latest round of clashes has drawn units of Colombia’s armed forces into clashes with Los Urabenos. The clashes have over the past days displaced over 3,000 people, report the office of Colombia’s Ombudsman and the UN. The majority of the displaced are reportedly members of indigenous communities.

CH/L – nsnbc 24.04.2016 

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Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/04/24/clashes-between-colombian-military-los-urabenos-and-eln-displace-thousands/

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