Thousands of civilians have crossed the Arauca river into the Colombian municipality of Aranquita to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Overview

As a geopolitical and humanitarian crisis, the situation is complex, to say the least – in part due to unsubstantiated claims and limited news coverage.

In recent years, Venezuela has repeatedly been accused by Colombian officials of harbouring and enabling dissidents belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – a former leftist guerrilla group – within their borders. FARC signed a historic peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016, officially marking an end to a 50-year-long civil war. However, thousands of members have refused to lay down their weapons and remain active participants in the distribution and production of cocaine.

Venezuela’s crackdown on “irregular Colombian armed groups” – notably a faction of FARC dissidents known as the Tenth Front – potentially represents a marked change in policy from Nicolas Maduro’s government, leading security experts to suspect dissidents and drug traffickers may have broken “unwritten rules” within Venezuelan territory.

Violent clashes between the two parties have led to casualties and losses on both fronts. It has been reported that nine FARC fighters have been killed so far and 31 arrested, following the destruction of nine of their camps. On the opposite side, the FANB has seen at least six soldiers killed and a further nine injured.

Collateral damage – a humanitarian crisis

This conflict has started to attract international attention due to alarming allegations of human rights abuse and extrajudicial killings performed by the Venezuelan military.

As cited by Reuters, refugees fleeing the area have accused the military of ransacking homes and killing civilians in La Victoria after residents were accused of being accomplices. Some civilian accounts suggest soldiers were complicit in rounding up villagers, demanding identification, and pointing weapons at them.

Human Rights Watch researchers strongly suspect that at least 4 civilians were executed during the offensive. Juan Francisco García, a lawyer working on behalf of Venezuelan human rights group Fundaredes, described the situation in La Victoria as “a civilian population trapped between warring groups … [the violence] has escalated every day”.

Rights groups on both sides of the borders have called on the United Nations to assign a special envoy to address the humanitarian crisis taking place in Apure state.

According to Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, two prosecutors have been appointed to investigate these allegations of human rights abuses.

Analysis

Relations between Venezuela – a self-described anti-imperialist nation – and US-backed Colombia have been rocky for a while. While the likelihood that this conflict could escalate into a full-blown war between the two countries remains low, the situation is volatile.

In early 2019, Colombia along with other US allies supported opposition leader Juan Guaidó in his unsuccessful attempt to oust President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro cut off all diplomatic ties with Colombia as a result of this move.

Due to worsening economic and social problems – including hyperinflation, food shortages and power cuts – over two million Venezuelans have now escaped to Colombia since Maduro took over power in 2013, further fuelling tensions.

A question mark remains over who is to blame for starting the violence. Officials on both sides of the border have come out with conflicting statements.

Colombia’s defence minister, Diego Molano, has said the violence was due to a dispute between the FANB and illegal armed groups over drug trafficking routes.

Venezuelan officials, including defence minister Vladimir Padrino, have portrayed the violence as a foreign offensive coming out of Colombia.

Padrino tweeted: “Colombian irregular groups attack us with explosives and rifles. They continue to instil terror in the population and believe that by harassing military bases they will intimidate us (…) Driven by drug trafficking, they intend to do what they do in Colombia.”

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Giorgos Karaivaz, a veteran Greek crime journalist, was shot outside his home in Athens ten days ago (April 9) in what has been described as an ‘execution-style murder’.

The 52-year-old, who worked for private broadcaster Star TV and news blog bloke. gr was shot at least ten times as two masked men on a motorbike pulled up and opened fire at the journalist. Preliminary reports suggest a silencer was used by the perpetrators to ambush Karaivaz after twelve bullet casings belonging to a 9mm pistol were found at the scene in the Alimos suburb of southern Athens.

Police strongly suspect Karaivaz had been followed and tracked by the assailants after returning home from an afternoon broadcast for Star TV. A motorbike, resembling the one described by eyewitnesses, was later found abandoned on a highway. It was a professional hit“, a police official told Reuters news agency.

Though his line of work covered organised crime and corruption, the motive behind the killing remains unknown. Karavan had not requested police protection or reported any death threats, and had no idea he might have been on a hitlist.

Reaction

The case has drawn widespread condemnation from journalists and politicians in Greece and Europe, as well as press freedom groups. Speaking on the issue, Government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said Karavaiz’s death had “shocked us all”.

Valois Syros, a colleague at Star TV, mourned his death during the channel’s afternoon news hour. “I can’t even process this information, I’ve known this man for 32 years“.

Killings of journalists are relatively rare in Greece, but not unheard of. In July last year, tabloid owner Stefanos Chios survived after being shot in the neck and chest outside his home. The case remains under investigation.

And in July 2010, investigative reporter Socratis Giolias was shot at 16 times by masked men on his doorstep in Illioupoli, another suburb of Athens. Golias was due to release the results of an investigation into corruption just days before his murder.

In light of the loss of a well-respected crime journalist, journalists in Greece have remained steadfast and committed to bringing the perpetrators to justice. Maria Antoniadou, head of the Journalists’ Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA), spoke out in defiance at the killing. “Whoever thinks that, in this way, they can silence journalists – there are another 6,099 who will investigate and demand to know what has happened.”

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, tweeted: “Murdering a journalist is a despicable, cowardly act. Europe stands for freedom. And freedom of the press may be the most sacred of all. Journalists must be able to work safely.”

Wider concerns: press freedom

There have been rising concerns in regards to press freedom and the safety of journalists in Europe. The murder of Giorgos Karaivaz is the fourth killing of a journalist in Europe in the past five years.

In 2017, Maltese investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was tragically killed in a car bomb attack. She had worked extensively on covering government corruption, money laundering and organized crime in Malta.

In 2018, Slovakian journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were both discovered shot dead in their own home. Kuciak had been investigating allegations of tax fraud involving businessmen connected to Slovakia’s ruling party.

And more recently in 2019, journalist and writer, Lyra McKee was fatally shot while covering riots in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have expressed concerns for media freedoms in Europe, citing a decline in the rule of law, an increase in violent assaults and a rise in online threats as their main concerns.

Hungary, under Viktor Orban’s tenure as prime minister, has been noted for its sustained attacks on press freedom. Those convicted of publishing what is deemed “fake news” face up to five years in prison.

Pavol Szalai, head of the EU/Balkans desk at RSF, called it a “worrying picture.”

“Europe remains the safest place in the world to be a journalist, but the pressures on press freedoms – and the risks – are mounting.”

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Microsoft’s interest in Discord is a clear indication that they are ready to compete with other rivals – namely Google (YouTube), Amazon (Twitch), Facebook (Instagram and WhatsApp), and Apple – as they seek to establish their own ‘community’ of committed and loyal users in today’s hyper-competitive social media landscape.

Indeed, Discord saw its monthly user base double to 140 million in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic as people increasingly turned towards virtual modes of communication. The company generated a record $130 million in revenue, up from $45 million in 2019.

The origins of Discord and its unprecedented growth during the Covid-19 pandemic

Discord was founded by video game developers Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevsky and was publicly released in 2015 under the name discordapp.com. As video game enthusiasts, their main motivation behind the creation of the platform was to develop a quick and efficient voice over software for gamers, with a focus on having a user-friendly UI with minimal impact on performance.

Up until 2020, the platform mainly catered towards gamers and gaming communities with thousands of servers dedicated to specific video games.

However, as of March 2020 Discord has pushed for a broader demographic and has shifted its emphasis on being a communicative tool for gaming towards more general use by rebranding itself as a “place to talk” and even changing its motto from “Chat for Gamers” to “Chat for Communities and Friends”. Since the pandemic struck Discord has been utilised for study groups, book clubs and other virtual ceremonies.

Analysis

Alongside its gaming business, Xbox, Microsoft’s acquisition of Discord is highly synergistic and would appear to make a lot of sense in terms of integrating and combining both communities, as well as their services and subscriptions. Since 2018, Microsoft has allowed users to connect their Xbox Live and Discord accounts.

Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst, Matthew Kanterman, has articulated this view: “Microsoft possibly acquiring Discord makes a lot of sense as it continues to reshape its gaming business more toward software and services … There’s a big opportunity to bundle Discord’s premium offering, Nitro, into the Game Pass service to drive more subscriptions from the last reported 18 million“.

Another factor to consider is Microsoft’s fiercely contested battle with Sony’s newly released console, the PlayStation 5 (PS5). The PS5 is a direct competitor and rival to the Xbox Series X and Series S – a rivalry that dates back to 2001.

According to market share data from December 2020, the PS5 has continued to significantly outperform the Xbox X/S series, with the former taking 65.05% of the global market share and the latter taking 34.94%.

The rationale is that partnering with Discord could potentially increase sales and entice consumers to switch over to the Xbox console, and thus challenge Sony’s dominance in the gaming console market.

Predictions

Some have predicted the deal might be completed by the end of this month. The $10 billion valuations are in itself a sign that both parties are serious – and if Microsoft were to be successful in their acquisition of Discord, this would represent their second-most expensive purchase ever, after the purchase of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016.

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In a statement posted on his Instagram account, Navalny, 44, claimed that he was not receiving medical attention to what he described as acute pain in his back and both legs and that his requests to see a doctor had been repeatedly ignored. “I have declared a hunger strike demanding that the law be upheld and a doctor of my choice be allowed to visit me,” he wrote.

“I have the right to invite a doctor and receive medication. But they are simply not allowing me to do either. The back pain has spread to my leg. I’ve lost sensation in parts of my right leg and now the left leg too.” Navalny also complained of the hourly checks by prison guards at night, arguing he was being subjected to sleep deprivation torture.

Alexei Navalny: a timeline

With millions of followers across all social media platforms, Navalny is the most prominent face of Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin. The 44-year-old rose to the scene in the mid-2000s after he began blogging about government corruption and malpractice.

In 2011 whilst giving a radio interview, he famously described Putin’s ruling party, United Russia, as a “party of crooks and thieves“, a popular expression which became a political slogan amongst political activists in Russia and one which continues to underpin the identity of Navalny’s movement today. In 2013, he ran for mayor in the Moscow mayoral election and came in second place, winning 27% of the vote.

In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalized after being poisoned with the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent and was airlifted to Berlin for emergency medical treatment. In September, the German government confirmed that toxicological tests had been carried out displaying “unequivocal proof of a chemical nerve warfare agent of the Novichok group” – the same nerve agent found in the 2018 Salisbury poison attacks.

Following his return to Moscow from Germany, Navalny became the centre of media attention once again after he was arrested on January 17 for violating the probation terms of a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement and subsequently sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, of which he is now serving at the penal colony in Vladimir Oblast. His arrest was widely seen as politically motivated and triggered a series of mass anti-government protests across the country.

The case against Navalny – his failure to report to police regularly in 2020 – was argued to be ‘absurd‘ by his legal team as the Russian authorities were aware of the fact he had been receiving emergency treatment in Berlin for the nerve agent attack, and thus unable to be physically present in Russia for the latter half of 2020. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has called on Russia to release Alexei Navalny “immediately,” describing the conviction as “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable“.

What next?

There are legitimate fears Navalny’s condition will continue to deteriorate and that he will be left to die in prison if his medical problems are not attended to.

In an open letter published by medical professionals, demanding that Navalny should get proper care, the prognosis was grim: “We fear for the worst. Leaving a patient in this condition … may lead to severe consequences, including an irreversible, full or partial loss of lower limb functions“.

According to prison authorities, however, the 44-year-old’s condition last week was deemed ‘stable’ and ‘satisfactory’, and that he was receiving necessary treatment.

Covid-19: an increase in state-sponsored repression?

Has Covid-19 amplified oppression and social inequalities? It is certainly an interesting question to ponder. For Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, this would be a comprehensive ‘yes’.

Callamard has been outspoken about the fact that certain governments are using the pandemic to ‘repress dissent and human rights’ towards political dissidents, and about how the ‘near-normalisation of emergency measures’ has curbed civil liberties.

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