A far-right group in southwest Colombia, saying they are The Aguilas Negras, on Tuesday threatened to kill all Venezuelan citizens, and officials who help them in the border region.
In a pamphlet, the “4th Block of the Capitalist Border Command” of the group announced that it “will declare any Venezuelan national that finds themselves in the Colombo-Ecuadorian region will be declared military objective, The order is to take them down.”
Aguilas Negras
The far-right movement also declared war on national and international humanitarian and rights organization including the United Nations’ refugee agency and labor unions.
Leftist lawmakers and indigenous leaders have claims that the group works together with the country’s military intelligence. Particularly in the Nariño and Cauca provinces in southwest Colombia, pamphlets signed by the Aguilas Negras have threatened ethnic minority leaders almost constantly.
Armed men assassinated at least 92 indigenous last year, according to Senator Feliciano Valencia, an indigenous leader from Cauca. At least 42 of the assassinations took place after President Ivan Duque took office in August, the lawmaker said in Mid December.
Valencia’s brother was seriously injured in an attack last year, one day after the senator from Cauca received a threat from the Aguilas Negras.
Senator Feliciano Valencia
Whoever is behind the Aguilas Negras is uncertain. Unlike paramilitary groups like the AGC that have a leader, a hierarchical military structure and armed combatants, the far-right group seems to have none of these.
But the terror they impose is very real, and many killings of social leaders follow the Aguilas Negras’ death threats.
Until earlier this week, the victims of this terror were mainly ethnic minorities, now they include Venezuelans.