 |
SPECIAL REPORTS -
Tuesday 22 December 2009 |
| |
VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA: Paramilitaries Rule
Border Area
By Humberto Márquez
SAN ANTONIO DEL TÁCHIRA, Venezuela (IPS) -
"We’re second-class citizens, victims of a
war that hasn’t broken out," said José Duque
from behind the wheel of a car carrying
passengers from San Cristóbal, in
southwestern Venezuela, to the border with
the northeastern region of Colombia, near
the city of Cúcuta.
Along the way, winding through the Andes
mountains 700 kilometres southwest of
Caracas, gasoline stations are besieged by
endless lines of vehicles, whose drivers are
resigned to waiting two, three, even four
hours to fill their tanks.
Duque has a list of complaints almost as
long as the gas line-ups. "Where I live we
have blackouts for several hours every
night. A lot of days we have no running
water. When you make a living on these
highways you’re in constant danger of
getting robbed, or being forced to pay
bribes. And on top of everything, this
oil-exporting country sabotages our work by
rationing gasoline."
Gasoline is a source of massive cross-border
smuggling activity. Authorities in both
countries estimate that more than 10,000
barrels (1.6 million litres) are smuggled
daily from Venezuela into Colombia, where
gasoline is sold at 15, 20 or 25 times the
price in Venezuela, which has the world's
cheapest gasoline.
A community leader from the city of San
Antonio del Táchira, who asked to be
identified only by his first name, Carlos,
told IPS that Colombian "mafias" like the
Black Eagles, made up of former members of
far-right paramilitary groups in Colombia,
"have controlled the smuggling of gasoline,
food and plastic products from Venezuela to
Colombia for years, and also the smuggling
of goods from there to here."
San Antonio is a bustling Venezuelan town
with a population of just over 50,000 where
the economy is driven by retail sales, with
hundreds of businesses selling clothing and
other textiles, leather goods, electronics,
appliances, vehicles and a vast array of
other consumer goods.
"Here, almost everyone pays a ‘tax’ to the
paramilitary mafias. This bakery where we’re
having a coffee pays one for sure, the ice
cream place across the street too, the same
as all the stores on this block," said
Roberto, another local resident and member
of a political party that backs Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez.
One of the town’s main streets runs directly
onto the Simón Bolívar bridge, which
connects Venezuela and Colombia across the
Táchira River (reduced to a trickle during
the current dry season). The narrow bridge
carries an endless flow of cars, trucks,
motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians
between the two countries, as border guards
on both sides look on with apparent
indifference.
In March 2008, the bridge was used as a
stage by performers from throughout Latin
America and Spain, headed up by Colombian
singer/songwriter Juanes, who organised a
"peace concert" aimed at easing the tensions
between Bogotá and Caracas, attended by tens
of thousands of young people gathered along
the dried-up river bed.
"This is nothing compared to what it was
like a year ago. The traffic was so heavy
that it took hours to get across the bridge,
because of the trucks that used to come from
Colombia with all kinds of merchandise, and
the Venezuelans going over there to spend
their dollars. But that’s all over now,"
commented Carlos.
Trade between Colombia and Venezuela reached
a record high in 2008 of 7.2 billion
dollars, with Colombian exports accounting
for six billion. Almost 90 percent of the
merchandise traded was transported by land,
much of it over the Táchira River.
During the first half of 2009, however, the
volume of trade declined as a result of the
worldwide economic crisis. Venezuelans,
subject to strict currency exchange rules,
also had fewer dollars to spend due to an
official exchange rate that overvalued the
national currency.
Then, in July, the Venezuelan government
drastically cut imports from Colombia as
part of an overall cooling of relations with
the neighbouring country, after Colombia
opened seven of its military bases to U.S.
troops.
Chávez accused Colombia of paving the way
for a U.S. attack on Venezuela, and
instructed the armed forces and his
followers to step up defence measures,
evoking the Latin adage, "If you want peace,
prepare for war."
The flow of trucks across the border has
declined considerably, but a small amount of
legal border trade has been maintained,
while contraband merchandise continues to be
carried across in cars and trucks, by foot,
and on motorcycles, bicycles and even beasts
of burden.
"Smuggling has continued along with legal
trade. Dozens of Colombian businessmen have
opened up stores in San Antonio, and bought
ranches along the border. A lot of families,
who have relatives on both sides of the
border, buy what they need wherever they
find the best quality or lowest price," said
Roberto.
In La Parada, on the Colombian side of the
cross-border bridge, numerous houses, stores
and repair shops serve as a front for money
changers, who openly handle wads of
Colombian pesos, Venezuelan bolivars and
U.S. dollars. There is also a flourishing
business for unlicensed taxi drivers and
makeshift gasoline dispensaries all along
the highway to Cúcuta.
"We’re charging 18,000 pesos (nine dollars)
for a 20-litre tank," teenaged gasoline
vendor Manuel told IPS. "I sell between 15
and 20 a day. I make enough to eat, but I’d
rather have a different job, with less sun
and more money," he commented.
The price of gasoline can vary daily, he
explained, "depending on how hard it is to
get it across. When the Venezuelan National
Guard cracks down, the price goes up."
Manuel and others like him merely sell the
tanks full of gasoline. As for acquiring and
filling the tanks and setting the prices,
"that’s all handled by them, you know, the
bosses of this business," he said, without
going into further detail.
According to Carlos, "All of these
businesses are run by networks controlled by
former paramilitaries. They pull the strings
on both sides of the border. That’s why when
they organised a protest, San Antonio joined
in, right away, without hesitation."
In early November, when the Venezuelan
authorities stepped up border control
measures on the main cross-border bridges,
porters and other workers in the area staged
a protest on the Simón Bolívar bridge, and
businesses in San Antonio closed their doors
for the day.
Ten individuals who were handing out
pamphlets in support of the strike were
arrested and could be charged as members of
Colombian paramilitary groups. The leaflets
also contained death threats against some
people in the area.
"For the protest on the bridge, the mafias
mobilised the motorcycle-taxi workers from
the 15 companies of this kind in San
Antonio, who are sort of like their
cavalry," said Roberto. "And the vast
majority of businesses in town closed that
day, because if they didn’t they would have
to pay the mafias a 'fine', and if they
didn’t pay up, they’d be setting themselves
up for even worse things."
Carlos said "this shows that the (Colombian)
paramilitary mafias and their accomplices in
Venezuela are the law here, they’re the ones
who administer justice. And not only in San
Antonio. They are moving into the small
towns and rural areas. They have already
arrived with their 'taxes' and 'fines' in
San Cristóbal and even farther away."
"This feeling that the laws of Venezuela no
longer rule here is affecting all of the
educational and organisational work we do,"
said Rosalía, who works in San Antonio and
the neighbouring town of Rubio as a
facilitator for communal councils, the
grassroots social organisations promoted by
President Chávez.
But on the other hand, "this climate of
contraband we live in means that people here
can always find some way to make a living,
they can always go and work on the border,
getting something across from here to there
or from there to here," she told IPS.
"There have always been and there will
always be goods moving across the border,
legally or not, depending on whether
potatoes or meat or rice are cheaper here or
there," said Duque. "But the fact that
gasoline costs the same in Venezuela as it
did 10 years ago is a problem that the
government hasn’t been able to come to grips
with."
In recent weeks, shipments of gasoline to
the state of Táchira, in the southwest
corner of Venezuela, have been cut back, and
many service stations are on the verge of
collapse, after years of taking advantage of
the rationing measures that limit the sale
of gasoline to 30 litres per car at a time.
Despite the 30-litre rule, "if you have a
van and need 60 or 70 litres, they’ll sell
it to you, but you have to pay double the
price or more, as a ‘contribution’ to the
station owner and the national guard officer
responsible for keeping watch," explained
Duque. "Multiply that contribution by 300 or
400 cars a day."
For his part, Carlos believes that "all of
these situations that make it possible to
make a lot of money for tolerating crime can
lead you to believe the rumours that people
spread, like the ones about a private in the
national guard buying a big four-wheel drive
truck, or national guard members who pay to
be stationed at the border and not in the
middle of the country."
The problems with gasoline supplies have
sparked protests. In mid-December, during a
clash between students from the opposition
and Chávez supporters, one participant was
shot and killed.
At a gasoline station on the outskirts of
San Cristóbal, Rosa Candia, a mother of two
who drives her daughters to and from school
every day, concurred with Duque: "Like
everywhere else in the country, we suffer
from the rationing of electricity and water,
and insecurity, and now they’re rationing
our gasoline, even though the country sends
oil to other countries at subsidised prices
or even for free."
Candia added: "It used to be an advantage to
live on the border. We would go to Cúcuta
(an hour and a half away by car) to buy what
was cheaper there, and Táchira lived off of
trade, tourism and agriculture. Now the
paramilitaries and guerrillas have come here
with their problems, and on top of that,
Caracas treats us like second-class
citizens."
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
