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The new director of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Terry Cole has accused Venezuela and the ELN of collaborating to export cocaine to the US. Speaking to Fox News he said: “ Venezuela has become a narco-terrorist state that continues to collaborate with the FARC and the Colombian ELN to send record quantities of cocaine from Venezuela and Colombia to Mexican cartels, which continue to enter the United States in unprecedented volumes.” The ELN has a long-standing relationship with the Venezuelan state. Starting in the 1980s and following a punishing campaign against them by the Colombian government, the ELN started…
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President Gustavo Petro has announced a new round of peace talks to take place with Colombia’s largest narcotrafficking organisation, the Clan del Golfo. The government has been engaged in sporadic peace talks with Clan del Golfo since 2023, as well as a secret round of talks in Doha last February. These negotiations are being conducted in the context of the Paz Total framework championed by the Petro Administration. Paz Total is intended to build on the 2016 peace deal with FARC to deliver reduced violence and increased security by reaching negotiated settlements After three years of work, no concrete results…
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On August 5th, Segunda Marquetalia’s second-in-command, José Manuel Sierra Sabogal, alias “Zarco Aldinever,” was reportedly killed in an ELN ambush near the Colombia-Venezuela border. The Segunda Marquetalia is one of the two major factions of FARC dissidents alongside the EMC. The group has a significant territorial presence along the border, which is currently being contested by the ELN. In a statement on their social media platform, the FARC dissident faction blamed “Pedro Pablo,” leader of the José Daniel Pérez Carrero Front of the ELN’s Eastern War Front of ordering the killing. The statement reads: “The ELN acted with malice and…
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Today (July 19), the Colombian army dismantled two cocaine processing laboratories in Norte de Santander controlled by the ELN. The facilities were located in Cucuta and Pamlontia, and a total of 275 kilos of cocaine were recovered during the operation. Five days earlier, the authorities uncovered two similar laboratories – one in Valle de Aburra operated by the Julio César Vargas Torres Substructure of the Clan del Golfo and the other an ELN lab in Tibu. These seizures are the latest in a series of cocaine laboratories the army identified and dismantled in 2025. On June 9, a cocaine lab…
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Today (July 15), explosives reportedly belonging to the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) were left on a road in the San Pedro neighborhood of Cúcuta, blocking traffic until an explosives disposal unit could safely remove them. Two days earlier, an explosion damaged a section of the Caño Limón–Coveñas oil pipeline near Saravena, temporarily disrupting the flow of oil. Although no group claimed the attack, security sources blamed the ELN. Three days before that, a mule rigged with explosives went off near a military patrol in Valdivia, Antioquia, killing one soldier. Authorities also blamed the ELN. These events are far from…
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On July 10th, the Colombian military conducted a bombing campaign in the Bajo Cauca region of Antioquia targeting a Clan del Golfo encampment. Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that the operation killed 30-40 members of irregular groups (the specific groups were not specified). These bombings were originally reported to have occurred near Valdivia, but in reality took place in Briceno. This attack is the third in a series of aerial operations targeting Clan del Golfo in northern Antioquia. On March 25, the Colombian military carried out an airstrike in Segovia that killed nine Clan del Golfo members, captured another, and…
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Over 65 farmers fled Yondó, Antioquia today (July 12) due to a clash between the ELN and Clan del Golfo. According to the Mayor’s office in Yondó fighting broke out between the two groups in Puerto Matilde but quickly spread to the rest of the Cimitarra River valley. This is the latest in a series of confrontations between the two groups. On May 16, fighting between the two armed groups in Valdivia forced over 215 people from their homes. In March, another clash between the ELN and the CdG in front of a school in El Bagre left one person…