The US offensive against drug cartels in Venezuela and now Colombia has entered a critical phase, marked by the bellicose rhetoric of President Donald Trump and a defiant response from Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, assured on Friday evening that the country would begin ground strikes in Venezuela in a “new phase” of the operation, pointing out that these ground missions will be directed against “horrible people who bring drugs into its territory”, avoiding talking about governments.
The president’s announcement comes amid high tensions with Nicolás Maduro, the regime’s leader, and after the start of a “new phase” of the Republican government’s pressure campaign against the Chavista leader.
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“Now we’re starting (the attacks) on the ground. And it’s much easier on the ground. And that will begin,” Trump said at the White House when asked about the situation with Venezuela. He then added that ground attacks “do not necessarily have to take place in Venezuela.” “Our target group is the people who bring drugs into our country,” he explained.
In this sense, he argued that his fleet deployed in the Caribbean suppressed the drug trade “on an unprecedented scale.” According to the North American president, “96% of medicines arriving by water have been reduced.”
Colombia and the ELN. The US president also expressed direct criticism of Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer. “Colombia has at least three cocaine factories. It’s a different country. We’re not happy with that,” Trump stressed, warning President Gustavo Petro that he would be “next” in the fight against drug trafficking if he doesn’t “wake up.”
The threat of military intervention on Colombian soil triggered an immediate response from the National Liberation Army (ELN), the oldest Marxist guerrilla in the Americas, which gradually turned into an organization dedicated to cocaine trafficking and extortionate kidnappings.
The ELN is present in more than 20% of Colombia’s communities, including key drug trafficking areas such as Catatumbo on the border with Venezuela.
In a statement released through its propaganda networks, the guerrilla group ordered “the detention of civilians” in the regions it governs for three days and argued that it would conduct “military exercises” to respond to Trump’s “threats of intervention.”
The guerrillas warned communities in the region not to travel on “roads” or “navigable rivers” so that “civilians do not mix with soldiers and thus avoid accidents.” The guerrillas accused Trump of having a “neo-colonial plan” aimed at “increasing the plunder” of Colombia’s “natural wealth” and presented themselves as defenders of sovereignty.
The ELN’s reaction was immediately rejected by President Gustavo Petro, who accused the group of a farce. “You, gentlemen ELN, are carrying out an armed strike, not against Trump, but “in favor of the drug traffickers that you control today,” explained Petro.
Despite his criticism of the ELN, Petro stood firm in the face of Trump’s threats and publicly demanded that he “not endanger” Colombia’s “sovereignty.” The verbal spat between the two leaders has caused the worst diplomatic crisis between Bogota and Washington in decades and overshadowed a historic friendly relationship.
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