An alliance between Colombian criminal groups and the Venezuelan military is turning Venezuela into an emerging cocaine producer.
By Diálogo Américas
Jun 13, 2022
The country is no longer just a transit point for the drug, InSight Crime, an organization that studies organized crime in Latin América and the Caribbean, said in its May 2022 report The Cocaine Revolution in Venezuela. Coca cultivation and processing enclaves have been detected in the states of Amazonas, Apure, and Zulia.
“Historically, we had three routes for narcotrafficking through Apure: by river, via the Arauca-Capanaparo; by air from Guasdualito and other towns; and by land,” Walter Márquez, a former Venezuelan representative and current president of the human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Fundación El Amparo, told Diálogo. “On the land route, they’ve used official vehicles to transport arms, drugs, and guerrillas.”
Several factors have come into play to bring about this change, says Jeremy McDermott, director of InSight Crime. Chief among those, the economic collapse that the corrupt and poor management of the Nicolás Maduro regime caused, a situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, the Maduro regime is “desperate to get foreign currencies” by controlling various illegal markets, including drug production and trafficking, McDermott said.
For operations in border states, the Venezuelan regime relies on dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), specifically the group known as Nueva Marquetalia, and in other places the regime also takes advantage of the presence of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the report indicates. “Colombian guerrillas sheltering in the states along the border with Colombia are his trusted narcotrafficking partners. They are experts in cocaine production,” McDermott added.
In this process, the guerrillas themselves have encouraged the farming of coca crops in Venezuelan territory, especially to the Catatumbo region, south of Lake Maracaibo, but also in the Paez municipality of Apure state, and areas south of Puerto Ayacucho, capital of Amazonas, the report says.
In Zulia, the ELN controls the coca crops and its production into cocaine hydrochloride, McDermott said. But in other states, the situation varies.
“In Apure, the Venezuelan military joined forces with the ELN and Nueva Marquetalia, against FARC dissidents under Gentil Duarte,” said Márquez. “[The actions] are against Gentil Duarte’s group, but so far the FARC [dissidents] are still here. Iván Márquez [Nueva Marquetalia] has not achieved total control, and this is why the conflict continues.”
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