Overview
- The ELN instructed civilians in areas under its control to remain indoors for 72 hours from 6 a.m. Sunday, telling residents to avoid main roads and rivers during its military exercises.
- President Donald Trump recently warned that countries producing and selling cocaine to the United States are “subject to attack,” and he later suggested Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro “will be next.”
- Colombia’s defense minister, Pedro Sanchez, rejected the ELN order as criminal coercion and said government forces would maintain a nationwide presence.
- The ELN fields roughly 5,800 fighters, operates in more than a fifth of Colombia’s municipalities, controls key coca zones such as Catatumbo, and finances itself through the drug trade.
- Regional pressure has intensified as Washington posted a $50m bounty on Nicolás Maduro, deployed major naval assets with thousands of troops, and conducted more than 20 strikes on alleged narco vessels that killed over 80 people, while studies report ELN activity in Venezuela that Maduro denies.