Colombian Journey - The Insane War

26.02.07

Arauca, Colombia

The following is a letter written by a colleague on the ground in the department of Arauca, about the ongoing war between the FARC and ELN. For more information and ways to help, contact IPO (info@peaceobservatory.org).

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Dear friends,

“I’d like information about the killings that occurred in Tame County from Thursday through Monday” said Yilson, a leader of the Joel Sierra Human Rights Foundation, as he called the Tame police station. He noted the name, location, and date of each of the killings. “Just those four?” he confirmed after receiving the information. Yilson and Sonia also called the police stations in Saravena, Fortúl, and Arauquita. Seven people had been killed in those counties from Thursday, February 15 to Monday, February 19. There are only 175,000 people in the four counties that comprise the western half of the state of Arauca.

The situation had been “relatively calm” since I returned here to Arauca on January 26 – that calm has now ended. The leaders of the Foundation believe that the majority of the recent killings were caused by the insane war being waged between the two guerrilla groups (FARC and ELN) in Arauca. Both groups have been threatening and killing civilians that they view as supporting the other side.

We drove through the epicenter of this war – Botalón, La Horqueta, Alto Cauca, and Pueblo Seco – on our way to Pueblo Nuevo on February 17. That was the shortest route and the report was that the situation was still calm.

Four hours after we passed through Botalón, fighting erupted between the guerrilla groups. Two men on a motorcycle didn’t hear the gunfire because of their helmets and the sound of the exhaust. They rode into the crossfire and the man on back was killed. Another man was killed in La Horqueta the following day.

“Alto Cauca and Pueblo Seco used to be full of people on Saturday and Sunday,” said Ismael as we stopped for a soda in Pueblo Seco at noon that Saturday. We were the only customers in the open-air bar and there were very few people on the main street. Many people have abandoned their homes and farms because they fear being killed in the war between the guerrilla
groups – both of which profess to be fighting for social justice.

This battle in Arauca was the cover story of the weekly magazine Cambio on February 5. The fight between the two groups has now spread to other parts of the country and that was the cover story of Semana magazine that same week.

Both guerrilla groups have stated that they oppose foreign
corporations exploiting Colombia’s natural resources. The war between those groups here in Arauca has been going on for almost a year. During that time, Occidental Petroleum (a U.S. corporation) and Repsol (a Spanish corporation) have been
jointly drilling for oil in the Cosecha field; and Repsol has been
drilling for oil in the Capachos and San Miguel fields, and the Catleya field (in the territory of the U’Wa indigenous people just west of Arauca). The fighting has temporarily shut down the Arauca social movement and prevented any protest against the environmental, cultural, and social destruction being caused by this drilling.

All of the social organizations here in Arauca have repeatedly
called on the guerrilla groups to stop targeting civilians in their insane war against each other. “Ya basta! Dejen a la población civil fuera del conflicto!” (“That’s enough! Leave the civilian population out of the fight!”)

Read more Denuncias

International Peace Observatory  |  Observatorio Internacional de la Paz  |  Bogotá, Colombia  |  NIT: 900.013.419-3

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