Two armed groups set the rules and no one dares misbehave. We’re here in Arauca at the border of Colombia with Venezuela. Here we have to do as they say or you die. In Arauca, armed groups have also planted landmines and perpetrated sexual violence, among other abuses. We found that armed groups on both sides of the border exercise control through threats, kidnappings, forced labor, child recruitment, and murder. We sent information requests to Colombian and Venezuelan authorities, and consulted an array of sources and documents. We interviewed 105 people, including community leaders, victims of abuses and their relatives, humanitarian actors, human rights officials, judicial officials, and journalists. Human Rights Watch visited Arauca in August 2019, documenting a range of abuses on both sides of the border. They impose their own rules, and to enforce compliance they threaten civilians on both sides of the border, subjecting those who do not obey to punishments ranging from fines to forced labor to killings. In the eastern Colombian province of Arauca and the neighboring Venezuelan state of Apure, non-state armed groups use violence to control peoples’ daily lives.
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