Venezuelan soldiers have killed civilians, refugees who have fled to Colombia say

MUNICIPALITY OF ARAUQUITA, Colombia (Reuters) – Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia to escape clashes between the Venezuelan army and irregular armed groups have accused soldiers of abuse, including killing civilians.

The flow of refugees, estimated at 4,000 by an official in the Arauquita municipality of Colombia, began Sunday after Venezuela’s National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) launched an offensive against illegal armed groups in La Victoria, a Venezuelan city across the Arauca. river from Arauquita.

Venezuela said it is investigating allegations that members of its military have been abusive, including detaining and killing civilians, as well as looting and burning houses.

‘They raided our house and took everything from us. When they arrived, they broke everything, the doors; they came in and took everything I had in the house, the workshop, ”mechanic Jose Castillo, who arrived in Colombia on Friday with his pregnant wife and 12-year-old daughter, told Reuters.

“I couldn’t stay because they kill people. They killed some neighbors and dressed them in Venezuelan army uniforms to take them off as guerrilla fighters, ”said Castillo.

Reuters could not independently verify Castillo’s allegations or those of other displaced Venezuelans who showed pictures on their cell phones of dead people wearing camouflage uniforms with weapons at their hands.

Dissidents from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who reject a 2016 peace agreement with the Colombian government, are the target of the military operations, according to the fleeing civilians.

But the victims were residents of La Victoria and the surrounding area, they said.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez told a press conference that two Venezuelan soldiers were killed in skirmishes, along with six irregular fighters whom he called terrorists.

Another 39 have been imprisoned, he added in a statement.

“We have to get rid of every group of every ideology, of every foreign nationality,” said Padrino. “We are obliged to turn them off, whatever they are called.”

The charges against the Venezuelan military do not reflect its ethics, Padrino said.

Venezuelan armed forces are obliged to defend the country against irregular groups, he said, adding that human rights would be respected and the events investigated.

In a separate statement, the Venezuelan Defense Ministry accused the Colombian government and the US Central Intelligence Agency of supporting foreign fighters.

The Colombian government and the CIA were not immediately available for comment.

Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek Saab, wrote in a series of Twitter posts that Venezuela is investigating events in La Victoria, to see if rights have been violated.

Colombian President Ivan Duque has accused the government of his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro of receiving FARC dissidents and members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), something the government in Caracas denies.