Caracas shake-up could intensify violence in Catatumbo in Colombia, an area rich with coca crops, cocaine laboratories and a porous border with Venezuela
Alberto’s eyes shifted nervously. His chin trembled.
His slender hands fumbled with a manila folder containing his family’s documents, which he was waiting to present to staff of the Human Rights Ombudsman in the north-eastern Colombian city of Cúcuta, in the hope of receiving humanitarian aid.
Like more than 2,000 people, Alberto, his wife, and his seven-year-old son arrived in Cúcuta in recent days, fleeing a guerrilla offensive in one of the country’s most violent regions along the border with Venezuela, known as Catatumbo.
“We can’t take it any more,” said Alberto, who asked his real name not be used for fear of retribution from the guerrillas that drove his family out of their home in the village of Pacelli.
