Colombia’s ELN rebels drill amid US intervention threat
Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s largest remaining rebel group, has ordered civilians to stay indoors for three days while it conducts military drills, citing potential US intervention threats.
The lockdown, announced Friday, instructs residents to avoid major routes and rivers from Sunday morning as fighters prepare to defend against what the ELN calls “imperialist intervention.” The move comes after US President Donald Trump warned that nations involved in cocaine production could face military action, News.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.
Colombia’s Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez dismissed the directive as “criminal coercion” and vowed government troops would maintain a presence across the country’s conflict zones.
The ELN, which fields around 5,800 fighters, controls significant drug-producing areas, including the Catatumbo region along the Venezuelan border. The group has previously engaged in peace talks with Colombian administrations, but negotiations collapsed after a January 2025 assault that killed over 100 people.
Relations between Colombia and the US have recently deteriorated, with Trump imposing sanctions on President Gustavo Petro and increasing military deployments in the Caribbean. Human rights groups have criticized the US strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin America as unlawful.
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