The war in Catatumbo is analyzed as a structural phenomenon inscribed in a regional geopolitical strategy that goes beyond interpretations focused on criminality or state weakness. From a critical and decolonial perspective, it argues that the paramilitary advance, linked to drug trafficking and extractive economies, responds to a territorial reorganization that serves external interests, particularly the security agenda of the United States. It argues that the ELN has historically operated as an armed bulwark against the instrumentalization of the Colombian-Venezuelan border, and therefore interprets the intensification of the conflict as part of a prolonged counterinsurgency strategy aimed at neutralizing that resistance. This work invites us to broaden the analytical frameworks of the field of conflict and security studies, enabling obvious hypotheses that are systematically avoided in contexts of polarization and extremism, and highlighting the centrality of territories such as Catatumbo and Venezuela in the contemporary dispute over regional sovereignty in a scenario of multipolar confrontation.
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