Colombian rebels warn civilians of military drills amid ‘imperialist’ Trump threats | Colombia
Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group has ordered civilians in areas under its control to stay at home for three days starting Sunday as it conducts military exercises in response to Donald Trump’s threats of “intervention”.
Trump said earlier this month that any country that produces cocaine and sells it to the United States will be “under attack.”
The ELN, the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas, controls key drug-producing regions of Colombia and vowed on Friday to fight in the “defense” of the country in the face of Trump’s “threats of imperialist intervention.”
Civilians in areas it controls were urged to remain confined for 72 hours, starting at 6 a.m. on Sunday.
“Civilians should not mix with combatants to prevent accidents,” the group said in a statement.
Tensions in the surrounding region have risen in recent months as the United States stepped up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, placing a $50 million bounty on his head and ordering a major military build-up in the Caribbean, as well as a series of deadly airstrikes on ships carrying alleged narcotics, killing more than 80 people.
With a force of about 5,800 fighters, the ELN, the Spanish acronym for the National Liberation Army, is present in more than a fifth of Colombia’s more than 1,100 municipalities, according to the research center Insight Crime.
The think tank found in a recent report that the organization has also built a growing presence in neighboring Venezuela, where it is present in eight of the country’s 24 states, expanding its finances, territorial control and political influence.
“The growth of the ELN and the survival of the Maduro regime are now interconnected. The privileged position the ELN enjoys in Venezuela is likely to continue as long as Maduro remains in power. Likewise, the survival of the Maduro regime depends in part on the growing power of the ELN,” the report said.
The ELN was involved in failed peace negotiations with Colombia’s last five governments.
Two years of peace talks with the government of incumbent Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, have been suspended after rebels intensified armed attacks in parts of the country.
Claiming to be guided by left-wing, nationalist ideology, the ELN is deeply involved in the drug trade and has become one of the region’s most powerful organized crime groups.
It is competing for territory and control of lucrative coca fields and smuggling routes with opposition fighters who refused to lay down their arms after the FARC guerrilla army was disarmed under a 2016 peace deal.
Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer, according to the UN.
