Four men traveling in a van were killed. this Thursday in a commercial area of the Colombian town of Arauquita, in the department of Arauca (east), an area that has been the victim of increasing violence due to clashes between guerrillas. “There are four deceased people,” the police told EFE, who did not want to give more details because the case is under investigation. However, local media indicated that the men They were in a truck with Venezuelan license plates when they were shot by men who later fled on motorcycles in that Colombian town on the border with Venezuela. According to the residents, the murdered are not from the area and would be passing through Arauquita, where driving ban applies imposed by armed groups. The truck’s license plates are from Zulia state (Venezuela).
The Police cordoned off the place of the attack and began the investigation for which they check the security cameras, which are not very numerous despite the fact that it is a place of business.
The department of Arauca is experiencing a spiral of violence that began in the first days of this year due to the war waged by the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Tenth Front of the former FARC dissidents. The ELN has maintained an active and strong presence for decades in Arauca and, after a kind of truce, is now clashing with the FARC dissidents, which seek to control the territory to dominate drug trafficking and other illegal activities such as mining and gasoline smuggling, among others. In that war, on January 20, a car bomb exploded in a central area of Saravena, leaving one dead and five wounded.
In all of January, according to the balance of the Colombian Ombudsman, 66 people have been murdered, especially in Saravena, Tame, Fortul and Arauquita, and more than 1,200 people have had to flee their homes throughout the department of Arauca .