Colombia: launch of a military offensive against the guerrillas

Colombian Minister of Defense Ivan Velasquez announced on Friday that a military offensive had started against the ELN guerrillas who have been leading deadly battles to the border with Venezuela for a week.

“There has already been a first fight of the army against members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) […] The order is to take the territory, “said the minister from the border city of Cucuta.

More than 9,000 soldiers are deployed in this region in northeast Colombia, he said.

Thousands of people flee the fights

This area has sunk into violence since the ELN guerrilla warfare, with 5,800 men, targeted dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Colombia (FARC), a rival armed group.

Since January 16, thousands of people have been fleeing the battles that have been targeting the FARC dissidents who did not sign the peace agreement in 2016 and civilians.

The ELN is trying to assert its control over a part of this border region, which houses drug trafficking and coca plantations, the main ingredient of cocaine, of which Colombia is the world’s leading producer.

One of the worst security crises in recent years

According to government and the United Nations estimates, the fighting left more than 100 dead in the country in a week, to which are added dozens of kidnappings and tens of thousands of displaced.

Colombia has plunged back into one of the worst security crises of recent years, destroying the government’s hopes to disarm the ELN with which it had relaunched peace talks in 2022.

According to the mediator’s office, current population trips have been the most important since 1997, when this data began to be collected.

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