Seven Colombian soldiers killed in rebel drone attack on base near Venezuela | Colombia
Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group attacked a military base near Venezuela with drones and explosives, killing seven soldiers and wounding 30.
Founded in 1964 and inspired by the Cuban revolution, the ELN is the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas and controls key drug-producing regions of Colombia. Efforts to negotiate a peace agreement have stalled repeatedly.
Thursday night’s attack on a rural military outpost in Aguachica, near the Venezuelan border, was the second deadly clash with security forces in a week. Two police officers were killed on Tuesday
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Colombian defense minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on social media early Friday: “I categorically reject the terrorist act of the ELN using drones and launching explosive devices against a Military Base, which led to the sad loss of 6 of our soldiers and the injury of at least approximately 28 soldiers.”
Videos circulating on social media show injured soldiers being brought to a local medical center on stretchers and wheelchairs, and a fire broke out due to explosions at the military outpost.
In October, the United States imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro over his reluctance to target armed cocaine trafficking groups.
After Petro, himself a former guerrilla, took power in 2022, he sought to engage in talks with well-armed cocaine-producing groups rather than waging open war. However, negotiations stalled.
Washington, which is waging a campaign against alleged drug smuggling off the coast of Venezuela, warned Petro that he could be “next in line” in his country’s cocaine production.
Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer, according to the UN.
The ELN, which is present in more than a fifth of Colombia’s more than 1,100 municipalities, vowed last week to fight in the “defense” of Colombia against “threats of imperialist intervention” by the United States.
The group has also expanded its finances, territorial control and political influence by building a growing presence in neighboring Venezuela, where it operates in eight of the country’s 24 states, according to the Insight Crime investigative center.
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.
