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The ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) is Colombia’s oldest and largest guerrilla group. The leftist army has a presence across many of the country’s departments, but is particularly concentrated on and around the Venezuelan border as well as on the Pacific coast. The ELN emerged out of Colombia’s violent civil war as a guerrilla force inspired by the Cuban revolution. Over many decades, it has evolved into a complex criminal structure involved in drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, and kidnapping. The group still maintains its ideological identity, but its purported revolutionary objectives are complicated by the money it makes from…
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Colombia’s Ministry of Defense have attributed Tuesday’s (27th) drone attack in El Plateado to the Carlos Patiño substructure of the Estado Mayor Central, FARC dissidents led by Iván Mordisco. The small town in central Cauca was terrorised by an improvised-explosives drone strike that killed one person and left 11+ more injured. According to the Colombian Ministry of Defense, Carlos Patiño targeted a group of farmers because after the community failed to show up in full force to eject the police from the town. Just a week ago, a car bomb went off in the same town near a school, thankfully…
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Residents of 10 villages in Antioquia, Colombia are confined to their homes by violence. Clashes yesterday between Clan del Golfo and FARC dissidents aligned with “Calarcá Córdoba” in Briceño, Antioquia, left the residents of 10 villages confined to their homes. Speaking with journalists, Briceño’s Secretary of Government said law enforcement struggled to enter the region due to the high density of antipersonnel mines. The risk to soldiers is real. In 2025, 44 soldiers/members of law enforcement were killed in the department of Antioquia, the highest total in 12 years. On Saturday, a group of people opened fire on a military…
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Colombian National Police seized 2.2 tons of marijuana on the Panamericana highway between Pasto and the Rumichaca international bridge on the Ecuadorian border. Investigators concluded that the shipment originated in Piendamó, Cauca, and would pass through Ipiales before crossing into Ecuador. This seizure fits a pattern of gangs concealing massive shipments in single trucks with just a driver and no escort, an effort to slip one big load through the border. Two other large shipments of marijuana on the same stretch of road include a 323-kilo seizure on 3 November (although not heading to Ecuador) and a 240-kilo seizure on…
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Yesterday, the Colombian Army raided 12 illegal mines in Chocó, Colombia, in the rural areas of Quibdó as part of a joint operation with environmental authorities and the local police. They destroyed five dredges, twenty water pumps, and thirteen engines valued at 275 million COP, according to El Tiempo. This comes five days after raiding, in a similar operation, 36 illicit mining sites controlled by Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s largest narcotrafficking organization, around nearby Carmen de Atrato. The Colombian state is stepping up its counter-mining activities following the deployment of an additional 3,600 soldiers to Chocó in May to deal…
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The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) announced a 72-hour “armed strike” in response to President Donald Trump’s “neo-colonial” plan for South America. The group announced in a social media post that it will prohibit people from traveling on highways or navigable rivers starting tomorrow (Dec 14) until Wednesday morning (Dec 17). According to the statement, this is a response to US interventionism. Trump has deployed the US’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, increased the total number of US troops in the region to 15,000, and has killed more than 80 people across 20+ strikes on what he claims are…
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Early on Sunday morning, a group of FARC dissidents attacked a police substation in El Carmelo, southwest Cauca, a region critical for coca production and trafficking. According to General Carlos Fernando Tirana, they threw explosives at the substation, causing it to catch fire. Four police officers were injured, and one was killed. The same day, there were also reports of other incidents across Cauca in Silvia, Caloto, Toribío, Cajibío, and Miranda. Carmelo is located in a part of Cauca with a high density of coca cultivation (used to make cocaine) while the nearby Micay river provides easy transport to trafficking…
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Last Thursday (11th), over 620 people arrived in the small town of Arenal, Bolívar, fleeing their displacement by the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), according to local authorities. Arenal and the surrounding area are critical for illicit gold mining. At that time, Mayor Ramón Sayas told local media that “they forced people to evacuate their homes, specifically in the districts of San Agustín and Santo Domingo, and in the villages of La Jungla, Sabaneta, and La Cañada. These people are in the municipality of Arenal. We are holding them in a makeshift shelter because we don’t have the capacity to…
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In the middle of the night on September 10th, two explosions went off in the Lomo de Indio neighborhood of Medellin. They were part of an attack, allegedly perpetrated by FARC dissidents, that destroyed at least one EPM power transmission tower. Mayor Federico Gutiérrez confirmed on social media that it was a terror attack. “Police arrived at Via Loreto in the Asomadera area tonight to verify the presence of a flag alluding to the FARC’s 36th Front. Explosions were heard in the area, and damage to one of EPM’s power towers was confirmed. Army personnel and bomb squad officers are…
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The 33 soldiers who were “kidnapped” by villagers in the Amazon, acting on the orders of FARC dissidents, have now been released. Government representatives had travelled to the Nueva York area to negotiate directly with the community. On Monday, the soldiers conducted a military operation in the province of Guaviare in the Amazon in which they killed 11 dissidents. Following the attack, citizens who live in the El Retorno municipality prevented them from leaving, according to Defense Minister Sanchez. . Commenting on the incident, Commander of the Armed Forces Admiral Francisco Cubides said: “As a result of these combats, ten…