A prominent rights group on Wednesday released a report, saying that people in the western Venezuelan state of Apure and the neighboring Colombian province of Arauca face brutal violence from armed militants on a daily basis
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2020) A prominent rights group on Wednesday released a report, saying that people in the western Venezuelan state of Apure and the neighboring Colombian province of Arauca face brutal violence from armed militants on a daily basis.
The National Liberation Army, the Patriotic Forces of National Liberation, and a group that emerged from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as FARC, are abusing citizens, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its report, adding that cases of rights' violations include murder, rape, forced child labor and others.
"Residents in Arauca and Apure live in fear, as armed groups recruit their children and impose their own rules, threaten residents, and punish those who disobey, even with murder or months of forced labor in the fields," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at HRW, said.
Vivanco further added that groups operated with almost absolute impunity in both countries, specifying that the situation in Venezuela was worse.
