Armed Violence in Táchira Promoted by “Mayors of Popular Will”
Armed groups have generated siege in much of the state of Táchira. Paradoxically, in the week of the last national sit-in the Bureau of Democratic Unity (MUD) was spreading terror around a supposed suspension of guarantees by the national government.
The armed phase of the guarimba
The insurrectional plan against Venezuela has moved to a new phase of intimidation by paramilitaries. After test runs in Caracas, Miranda, Lara, Carabobo, Táchira and Mérida, armed groups of the MUD are now initiating a new phase of violence, escalating chaos, looting and attacks on police and military headquarters .
On May 15 an anti-Chavez march ended in the firing of mortars by those who set fire to the Police Coordination Center of Colón (Ayacucho municipality) and the Prefecture of the jurisdiction, which destroyed homes and commercial premises.
The state of siege in this border area with Colombia is advancing to the rhythm of violent events that have occurred in much of Táchira state and some towns in Mérida.
Following a violent episode in Palmira municipality Guásimos, Luis Alviárez, where 17 died of gun shot wounds to the chest, two national police (PNB) were charged with the crime of intentional homicide.
Diego Hernández, head of the CLAPs in the municipality of Independencia, was shot dead in Capacho Nuevo, and an official of Politáchira was charged.
On Thursday, May 18, nine wounded with gun shot wounds were admitted to the Los Andes University Hospital following armed clashes in the Tovar municipality, Mérida state, (two Polimerida, one Bolivarian National Guard and three civilians).
Minister of Internal Affairs, Justice and Peace Néstor Reverol announced the arrest of six Colombian paramilitaries during the vandalism in Tachira state on May 16, adding that anti-Chavism-financed warfare operators wore uniforms of the PNB and executed assaults on 11 commercial establishments, resulting in millions in losses for their owners. A deputy from the Democratic Action Party of Táchira accused the “armed groups” and officials of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) of deaths during the violent escalation that exceeds 50 days.
However, government sources say that alleged police officers under the command of the mayors of Ureña, Guásimos, Córdoba, Cárdenas and Torbes (three of them ruled by People’s Volition) were leading armed groups (through the local police they control) who travel on motorcycles through these Tachirenses jurisdictions, promoting acts of violence, terror and looting. These anti-Chavez militants also promote collective kidnapping by means of roadblocks, toll collection and barricades, which is celebrated as “resistance” by countless accounts in social networks of opponents.
Allocation of fuel distribution
Public transport workers in the Ayacucho municipality declared that they had been paralyzed for 10 days due to lack of fuel at the service stations of the jurisdiction. Although the entity has a “strategic” reserve for official “assistance” vehicles, companies and basic services, the lack of gasoline due to the closure of roads intensifies the paralysis of activities that have already been curtailed by curfews decreed by armed bands of the MUD.
In the case of Rubio, violence has been constant since April of this year, and in San Cristóbal, the scene has been even more violent, not only by the number of dead, but by the presence of armed gangs terrifying civilians in urban settlements, destroying houses, vehicles and businesses. In some places, neighbors have come out in defense of commercial premises, which increased the numbers of wounded and dead. Once such violent scenarios are detonated, the consequences are unpredictable.
Attacks on military headquarters
Anti-chavistas launched two attacks on FANB facilities. One on the Battery of Mortars, located in La Grita, Jauregui municipality, where they burned a car owned by a civilian worker and forced him through the main gate of the barracks so they could steal weapons and provoke military personnel inside. Seven involved will be tried in military jurisdictions. Also, between 80 and 100 antichavistas besieged the headquarters of group 215 of field artillery Genaro Vásquez of the National Bolivarian Army in the city of San Cristóbal, throwing Molotov bombs, gas cylinders and firing metras. The commander of the unit, Lt. Col. Araque, and 9 other officers, were wounded.
The chief of the Andean Strategic Defense Department (REDI Los Andes), Major General José Morantes Torres, described this systematic aggression as “stinging the armed insurgency” and this is confirmed by the governor of Táchira state, José Gregorio Vielma Mora, through the publication of an audio in which Gaby Arellano coordinates the placement of barricades and the actions of the gangs.
The guarimba as street phase of the economic war
Fedecámaras Táchira president Daniel Aguilar said in the same week that trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables for more than 200 cities in the country have not been able to travel through the insecure zones, exacerbating an already volatile situation given the millions in losses caused by the economic war and the Almagro plan in the area. The chief of the REDI accused him of threatening the director of the military high school Jáuregui, and claimed to have audios as evidence.
Likewise, Governor Vielma Mora revealed that, in alliance with hired assassins and terrorists from the north, cattlemen from Panamericano and Samuel Darío Maldonado municipalities loaned tractors and trailers as well as food to keep the Troncal 1 road closed.
On Saturday 20 the FANB managed to clear the Pan American highway which permitted 45 tankers of fuel into the state of Táchira.
The anti-Chavez violence, in coordination with economic sectors and paramilitary bands, has unleashed a criminal wave that sends both Andean states towards a generalized unemployment and anxiety. This has forced the FANB to implement a second phase of the Plan Zamora, so criticized by the MUD. To execute it, an additional 2,000 GNBs and 600 Army Special Operations troops have been deployed that will focus on the search and capture of groups that generate national violence and transnational crime.
As a backdrop to these actions, on 22 May, contained in phase 2 of the Zamora Plan, are the captures and clashes with paramilitaries from Colombia and the dismantling of a camp near the north of Santander a couple of months ago. Data that highlights the incursion of irregular and paramilitary groups as a vanguard of street violence politically articulated by Popular Will.
Two days ago, Freddy Guevara accompanied an anti-Chávez mobilization in Táchira state, where he asserted that he was going to “support the peasants” and their “resistance” actions.
