BOGOTA— Colombia said Monday it was sending 300
troops to the border with Venezuela after five soldiers were killed in a rebel
attack that Bogota claimed was planned on its neighbor's soil.
اضافة اعلان
The soldiers died Saturday in an attack executed jointly by
fighters from Colombia's last remaining rebel group, the ELN, and dissident
FARC guerrillas who have rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government.
President Ivan Duque said the attack with explosives, rifles
and machine guns in Colombia's eastern Arauca region had been "planned
from Venezuela."
Caracas denies the claim.
On Monday,
Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano told
reporters the country's military presence on the border would be reinforced
with 300 soldiers.
Two Colombian soldiers were abducted in Arauca last Friday,
according to officials.
Colombia has seen a recent spike in violence — driven by an
estimated 2,500 dissident fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) battling over drug trafficking routes and illegal mining
locations with the ELN and paramilitary groups.
Colombia and Venezuela have not had diplomatic ties since
2019, when Colombia joined the United States and other countries in rejecting
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's disputed reelection, recognizing
opposition leader Juan Guaido instead.
The neighbors share a border of some 2,200 kilometers.
Bogota has repeatedly accused the
Venezuelan government of
harboring FARC and ELN fighters, a claim Caracas denies.
Maduro, for his part, points the finger at Duque over
alleged coup and assassination plots in his country.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
