Granada, Spain, 2020.
Exploring the citizen security implications of the double crisis in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region.
The Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands are in the last years witnessing new interactions between Venezuelan migrants and the multiple violent non-state groups (VNSGs) that operate in this border region. While most concern have been raised independently about the humanitarian dimension of the Venezuelan migration crisis, or the security crisis emerging from the reconfiguration of VNSGs presence in these borderlands, the convergence of the two crises has led to an unprecedent double crisis that further challenges stability in an area with some of the most critical violence and crime dynamics in Latin America.
Adopting a borderlands lens as an epistemological approach that starts from the state’s geographical and social margins, in this research I engaged with Idler’s (2019) theorisation of the border effect – as facilitator, deterrent, magnet, and disguise – to explore in which specific ways the Venezuelan migration crisis feeds into the insecurity context of armed conflict and organised crime in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region to impact citizen security.
All the more vulnerable
Exploring the citizen security implications of the double crisis in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region.
The Colombian-Venezuelan borderlands are in the last years witnessing new interactions between Venezuelan migrants and the multiple violent non-state groups (VNSGs) that operate in this border region. While most concern have been raised independently about the humanitarian dimension of the Venezuelan migration crisis, or the security crisis emerging from the reconfiguration of VNSGs presence in these borderlands, the convergence of the two crises has led to an unprecedent double crisis that further challenges stability in an area with some of the most critical violence and crime dynamics in Latin America.
Adopting a borderlands lens as an epistemological approach that starts from the state’s geographical and social margins, in this research I engaged with Idler’s (2019) theorisation of the border effect – as facilitator, deterrent, magnet, and disguise – to explore in which specific ways the Venezuelan migration crisis feeds into the insecurity context of armed conflict and organised crime in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region to impact citizen security.