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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Conflict & Security

Colombia warns that ELN and FARC leaders are in Venezuela and calls for action against their camps

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Colombian military, defense and police officials say senior ELN and Segunda Marquetalia leaders are hiding in Venezuela.
  • They say the groups have expanded their criminal influence beyond the Colombian border and into areas toward Guyana.
  • Colombian officials have asked the United States to pressure Venezuela and have not ruled out attacks against ELN positions there under international law.

Colombia’s senior security officials say the top leaders of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and the FARC dissident group Segunda Marquetalia are hiding in Venezuela. They argue that the threat extends beyond Colombia’s border and have called for action against the camps and structures operating there.

The leaders of the ELN in their entirety

· Erick RodríguezHe was responding to a question about Colombian criminal groups hiding in Venezuela.

General Erick Rodríguez, commander of Colombia’s armed forces, Defense Minister Jorge Eduardo Mora and National Police Director General Jesús Alejandro Barrera addressed the issue in an interview with Semana. Rodríguez said the ELN’s leaders were in Venezuela, naming Pablito, Silvana Guerrero, Pablo Beltrán and Antonio García. He also identified Iván Márquez and the Segunda Marquetalia.

Rodríguez said the groups were not confined to the border area. He claimed that their criminal influence had expanded through Venezuela’s Amazonas state toward the east, with ELN structures already present in Guyana and along the Venezuela-Guyana border. He described the ELN as a transnational terrorist organization and a threat to Colombia, Venezuela and the wider region.

It is very serious. The ELN is a transnational terrorist organization that is a threat not only to Colombia and Venezuelans, but also to the region

· Erick RodríguezHe warned about the group’s alleged presence and regional reach.

Barrera did not rule out a possible United States bombing operation against the ELN in Venezuela. He said any such action would be determined under international law. He also said the ELN commanders live clandestinely in Venezuela, no longer in camps but in urban areas with greater comfort and access to medication.

by reason or by force

· Abelardo de la EspriellaThe Colombian president’s stated promise to restore security.

Mora said Colombia had asked U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to pressure Venezuela to control and attack the camps on its territory. Colombia, he said, wanted the United States to repeat against these structures what it had done against the Tren de Aragua. President Abelardo de la Espriella has promised to restore security “by reason or by force,” and Colombian officials said the campaign would continue.

There is no point in beginning to recover Colombian territory if they have the freedom on that porous border to move around without any problem

· Jorge Eduardo MoraHe explained why Colombia was asking the United States to pressure Venezuela.
About this summary

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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