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Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) group attacked a military base near the Venezuelan border with drones and explosives on Friday, killing six soldiers and injuring more than two dozen more.
“I categorically reject the ELN’s terrorist action of using drones and launching explosive devices against a military base, with the regrettable loss of six of our soldiers and at least about 28 soldiers wounded,” Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on social media early Friday.
According to AFP, the Thursday night attack on the rural military outpost in Aguachica, near the border with Venezuela, was the second deadly clash with security forces in a week, with at least eight soldiers killed.
Founded in 1964 and inspired by the Cuban revolution, the ELN is the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas, controlling key drug-producing regions of Colombia.
Efforts to negotiate a peace settlement have repeatedly stalled.
In October, the United States imposed sanctions on Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro for his alleged reluctance to target armed cocaine-trafficking cartels.
After taking power in 2022, Petro, a former guerrilla himself, attempted to engage well-armed cocaine-producing groups in talks, rather than conduct open warfare. But negotiations faltered.
Washington, conducting operations against alleged narco-trafficking off Venezuela’s coast, has warned Petro that he could “be next” over his country’s mass cocaine production.
The ELN, which is present in over a fifth of Colombia’s 1,100-plus municipalities, vowed last week to defend Colombia in the face of what it called US “threats of imperialist intervention.”
The United Nations has identified Colombia as the world’s top cocaine producer.
