John Otis. More than 1 million Venezuelans are estimated to be living in Colombia. About one-third of the more than 3 million Venezuelans who have fled their nation's deep economic crisis have settled in next-door Colombia.
But some of these refugees, instead of finding safe haven, are being recruited into Colombia's guerrilla groups, human rights and military officials tell NPR. It is unclear how many Venezuelans have joined the rebels. But Col. He said that four more Venezuelans who joined the dissidents were captured this month following a botched kidnapping in Arauca. Arauca has become a prime recruiting ground for Venezuelan refugees. He said the vehicle's driver, who also died in the attack, was an ELN explosives expert who was based in Arauca.
Human rights activists say Venezuelans often come into contact with guerrillas as they attempt to cross the Arauca River, which forms the border and is partially under rebel control. The guerrillas "take advantage of their neediness," she says.
She moves around with a bodyguard because she has received death threats stemming from her investigations and asked that NPR not reveal her name. Juan Carlos Villate, a government human rights official in Tame — a town in Arauca state that is home to about 5, Venezuelans — told NPR that the rebels initially offer migrants seemingly innocuous jobs as cooks and laborers, but that some end up as combatants.
All this comes at a time when Colombia's half-century-old guerrilla war was supposed to be winding down. Under the terms of the peace treaty, the FARC's 7, fighters turned in their weapons. Since then, the FARC has become a legal political party and was granted 10 seats in Colombia's congress until The ELN has also been involved in on-again-off-again peace talks. However, disgruntled FARC members — some of whom claim the government had ignored its peace treaty obligations to help them transition to civilian life — began rearming.
