Colombian Forces Fight the ELN

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)

“…seven illegal complexes were located and destroyed…”

Source: Radio Santafé, “El Ejército desmanteló siete cambuches de robo de gasolina del Eln (The Army dismantles seven ELN gasoline theft structures),” Radio Santafé, Bogotá, 8 March 2018. http://www.radiosantafe.com/2018/03/08/ejercito-desmantelo-sietecomplejos-ilegales-del-eln-para-robar-y-procesar-hidrocarburos-en-norte-de-santander/

“In joint operations of the Second Division [Colombian Army], the Air Assault Division with its Counter-Narcotics Trafficking Brigade, the National Police, seven illegal complexes were located and destroyed, [these complexes] being used for the extraction and processing of hydrocarbons in North Santander Department.”

Source: Colprensa, “10 guerrilleros muertos por bombardeo al Eln (10 guerrillas dead from bombing the ELN),” Vanguardia.com, 7 March 2018. http://www.vanguardia.com/colombia/426615-10-guerrilleros-muertos-por-bombardeo-al-eln

“Operation Red Lighting, that is advancing against the ELN, [effected] by the Armed Forces in conjunction with the National Police and the Colombian Air Force, left 10 persons dead and three captured, as well as seizing war materiel…This is considered to be the complete column of the ELN in Lower Cauca [lower Cacuca River area in northern Antioquia Departments] that has caused displacements in Cáceres y Tarazá [counties] and the attacks against electric towers in the interconnection toward Córdoba.”