Fight between groups leaves six rebels dead in Venezuela

BOGOTA (AP) – Colombia’s smaller rebel group has killed six fighters with the country’s main guerrilla insurgency during clashes over control of lucrative drug trafficking routes near the Venezuelan border, the army said Thursday.

Units of Colombia’s main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the second-largest National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been fighting pitched battles since Saturday in remote areas of the oil-rich Arauca region, 460 kilometers (285 miles) northeast of Bogotá, said Gen. Hugo Gutié-rrez, commander of the Colombian Army’s 18th Brigade.

“From the combat, we know of the death of six terrorists of the FARC,” he told local Caracol Radio. He reported no casualties among ELN fighters and said government forces were not involved in any of the fighting. Among those killed was a deputy commander in the FARC’s 45th Front who was the “right-hand man” in the Arauca region for the FARC’s military chief, Jorge Briceño, alias “Mono Jojoy,” the army commander said.

Both the FARC and the ELN began in the 1960s with a similar goal: to overthrow what they consider an oppressive Colombian government and install a socialist-style rule.
They have sometimes worked together in kidnapping for ransom or drug trafficking operations and have sometimes fought side-by-side against right-wing militia groups. But they’ve also clashed in recent years.

The 3,500-strong ELN this week began exploratory peace talks with the government in Cuba, while the FARC, with 12,000 fighters, has shunned peace negotiations with the administration of conservative President Alvaro Uribe.