(AFP) – Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group ordered civilians in areas under its control on Friday to stay home for three days as it carries out military exercises in response to “intervention” threats from US President Donald Trump. The ELN, the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas, controls key drug-producing regions of Colombia and vowed Friday to fight for the country’s “defense” in the face of Trump’s “threats of imperialist intervention.”
Amid a major US pressure campaign against Venezuela, which many view as an attempt to push out strongman Nicolas Maduro, Trump on Wednesday warned that Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro could “be next” over his country’s mass cocaine production. “He’s going to have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up. Colombia is producing a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters, when asked if he expected to speak with frequent foe Petro. “He better wise up, or he’ll be next…I hope he’s listening.”
The ELN urged civilians in areas it controls to stay indoors for 72 hours starting at 6:00 am on Sunday, avoiding main roads and rivers. “It is necessary for civilians not to mix with fighters to avoid accidents,” the group said in a statement. Petro criticized the move on social media, saying one “doesn’t protest against anyone by killing peasants and taking away their freedom.” “You, gentlemen of the ELN, are declaring an armed strike not against Trump, but in favor of the drug traffickers who control you,” he wrote on X.
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez dismissed the ELN move as “nothing more than criminal coercion” and vowed the military “will be everywhere — in every mountain, every jungle, every river” to counter its threat. With a force of about 5,800 combatants, the ELN is present in over a fifth of Colombia’s 1,100-plus municipalities, according to the Insight Crime research center. The ELN has also taken part in failed peace negotiations with Colombia’s last five governments.
While claiming to be driven by leftist, nationalist ideology, the ELN is deeply rooted in the drug trade and has become one of the region’s most powerful organized crime groups. It vies for territory and control of lucrative coca plantations and trafficking routes with dissident fighters that refused to lay down arms when the FARC guerrilla army disarmed under a 2016 peace deal. One ELN stronghold is the Catatumbo region near the Venezuelan border — one of the areas with the most coca crops in the world. Colombia is the world’s top cocaine producer, according to the UN.
– Souring ties – Historically strong relations between Bogota and Washington have deeply soured since Trump’s return to office. Petro, who came to power in 2022 as Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, has openly clashed with Trump calling him “rude and ignorant” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler. The Colombian leader denounced the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants and what he has termed the “extrajudicial executions” of nearly 90 people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific the US claims, without providing evidence, were ferrying drugs.
Petro has also criticized Washington’s military deployment within striking distance of Venezuela, where Maduro fears he is the target of a regime-change plot under the guise of an anti-drug operation. Washington, in turn, has accused Petro of drug trafficking and imposed sanctions. Trump removed Bogota from a list of allies in the fight against narco trafficking, but the country has so far escaped harsher punishment.
© 2024 AFP
