OE Watch Commentary: The accompanying references are recent among numerous reports showing that the Colombian Army has been taking offensive initiative against the People’s Liberation Army (ELN) in the last few months. The action reported in the first reference took place in North Santander, a department bordering on Venezuela and which is home to a great deal of hydrocarbon infrastructure, including hundreds of miles of vulnerable pipeline. The ELN has long experience at hydrocarbon predation. Shutting down the loci of their processing operations will set the ELN back a bit, but unless they are chased to sanctuary and neutralized, they are likely to continue. According to the second accompanying source, government forces apparently caught up with one of the ELN units in Antioquia, in northeastern Colombia, at the base of a large sanctuary area known as the Paramillo. The report suggests that the pre-stated goal of the operation was to wipe the ELN unit out, and that seems to have been the result. End OE Watch Commentary (Demarest)