Community responses to a changing security landscape at the Colombia–Venezuela border: The case of La Guajira

The Colombian–Venezuelan borderlands are facing a ‘double crisis’: at the same time as armed groups reconfigure following the demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia is concurrently receiving millions of refugees, migrants, and Colombian returnees from neighbouring Venezuela. While much international coverage of the crisis has focused on Cúcuta, the major border crossing in the department of Norte de Santander, the crossing via the Guajira Peninsula is the second most frequented official land crossing into Colombia. In 2020, La Guajira was home to more than 166,000 refugees and migrants, the third highest concentration in the country. This happened at the same time as new and old armed groups were using violent measures to control strategic territory in the region. This practice note takes stock of the risks that affect security conditions as perceived and experienced by communities in La Guajira, and outlines the self-protection strategies that some communities employ to respond to the changing security conditions. It demonstrates the need for enhancing efforts for integration (for example, documentation) and response mechanisms that are shared between Colombia and other countries in the region in order to mitigate risks for Venezuelans in border regions of Colombia. The information reported here comes from a targeted civil society workshop held in Riohacha—the capital city of La Guajira—and a field visit made in April 2019 under the research programme ‘From Conflict Actors to Architects of Peace—CONPEACE’