Posted on 10/19/2025 10:45:44 AM PDT by Signalman
Just hours after President Donald Trump cancelled all subsidies with Colombia and warned leftist President Gustavo Petro that he would be taking action against drug-trafficking organizations within the country if the Colombian president failed to deal with them, War secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. Military had carried out a successful strike on a drug-trafficking boat linked to a leftist terrorist group.
“On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth announced in an X post.
The ELN is a far-left guerrilla organization that is designated as terrorist by several governments, including the United States, Colombia, the European Union, Canada and others.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth said of Friday’s strike. He went on to state that three drug smugglers were killed in the strike, which was conducted in international waters, adding that no U.S. personnel were harmed in the operation.
The ELN dominates coca-growing regions along Colombia’s Pacific coast and the Venezuelan border, where it oversees cultivation zones and trafficking corridors. This control allows the group to impose “taxes” (extortion fees) on coca farmers, processors, and traffickers, generating millions annually. Government officials and analysts note that ELN fronts have expanded into these criminal economies, particularly after the Colombian government reached a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth wrote. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”
The announcement comes just hours after President Donald Trump warned Colombia’s self-described socialist president, Gustavo Petro, that the U.S. would be taking action against drug-trafficking organizations operating within Colombia’s borders if Petro’s government failed to do so.
While speaking at the UN General Assembly last month, Petro erupted into a fiery tirade in which he denounced the U.S. as an “imperialist” state and called for criminal proceedings against President Trump. He has also sought to strengthen ties with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime as the U.S. ramps up strikes on Venezuelan drug-trafficking organizations.
“President Gustavo Petro, of Columbia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Columbia (sic),” the president posted on Truth Social. “It has become the biggest business in Columbia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” he added.
Pointing to Petro’s low approval ratings, which have hovered in the high 20’s, Trump described his Colombian counterpart as a “low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America.”
He went on to warn Petro that his government must “close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
Libertarians hardest hit.
“...conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel”
DOD gobbledegook. This “lethal kinetic strike” crap became popular 10 or 20 years ago.
How about a plain-speak “we blew it up!”
“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people. The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”Great news and great description!
“”””How about a plain-speak “we blew it up!””””
It blowed up real good.
Interestingly, places like YouTube Chat will randomly censor phrases like ‘blew things up’ but allow ‘lethal kinetic’. Happens with ‘killed’ versus ‘unalived’ too.
Not since Ronald Reagan have druglords had to fear a US president like they do Trump. If Trump can ‘dedrugify’ Latin America it will be one of the greatest achievements of any US president ever.
Interesting take. Hadn’t thought about the automated sissified new-speak bot editors.
You’ve got to be kidding me! ‘killed’ versus ‘unalived’
Updated Love Boat song.
The drug boat
is making another run.
The drug boat,
after the setting Sun.
Look up to see the bright light
and hear
The last blast that
confirms what you really fear.
There’s a new Prez
in charge
since last year.
Drug boats and missiles
don’t really mix.
All those dealers now can’t
supply a fix
for street junkies
we see in all those pix.
Photo, blue dress woman.
“Behind” in her work as usual so he’s just trying to help out.
the word unalived was invented to get around the censors.
US Indicts 4 Colombia ELN Rebels for 2000 Kidnapping
LATIN AMERICA HERALD TRIBUNE ^ | November 8, 2013 | n/a
Posted on 11/13/2013, 4:45:17 AM by Cindy
SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON – Four members of a violent guerilla organization were indicted on Friday on conspiracy and hostage-taking charges stemming from the kidnapping of more than 60 people in Colombia in 2000, including three United States nationals.”
Ecuadorian Caught Smuggling Explosives into Colombia
LATIN AMERICA HERALD TRIBUNE ^ | September 1, 2010 | n/a
Posted on 9/15/2010, 5:10:25 AM by Cindy
SNIPPET: “BOGOTA – Colombian authorities detained an Ecuadorian man who crossed the border with 25 kilos (55 pounds) of explosives officials say were meant for the small ELN rebel group.
The smuggler, Antonio Peña Perugachi, was arrested in Tuquerres, a village in the southern border province of Nariño.
He was carrying 50 packets of pentolite, a high-power explosive, destined for a unit of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, police said in a communique.”
(Excerpt) Read more at laht.com ...
from 2008:
But former rebels say the two main Colombian rebel groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, buy protection from high-ranking Venezuelan National Guard and army officers, with whom they often also share a leftist ideology.
“Venezuela’s army helps the guerrillas a lot,” said Antonio, who spent 13 years with FARC. Now an informant for Colombia’s military, he asked that his last name be omitted to protect relatives from reprisals.
Antonio was among two FARC and four ELN deserters interviewed by AP who said they moved freely across the frontier, a tangle of thick jungle, wild rivers and rugged mountains.
Well inside Venezuela, Colombian insurgents rest, train, buy arms and uniforms, recover from wounds and process cocaine, according to the rebel deserters, Venezuelan opposition politicians and Colombian officials.
Some top rebel commanders even raise families and educate their children in Venezuela, deserters told AP.…
I voted for this
RE: Blue dress woman is a man....
Jack Lemmon to Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYUfPTeE0DM
The indictments did not lead to immediate arrests or extraditions, as the defendants remained at large and none were in U.S. custody at the time. The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI emphasized ongoing cooperation with Colombian authorities to pursue justice, but no arrests were reported in the years immediately following 2013.This lack of progress highlights how indictments alone often do not result in swift justice for transnational guerrilla crimes, relying heavily on bilateral cooperation that can be delayed by political and logistical hurdles. The U.S. continues to offer rewards via programs like the Narcotics Rewards Program for information leading to ELN leaders' capture, though none specifically target these four individuals.
- 2013–2020: No Major Developments: Public records show no arrests, extraditions, or trials related to these specific charges during this period. The ELN continued its activities, including kidnappings, despite U.S. designations of the group as a foreign terrorist organization. Broader U.S.-Colombia efforts focused on other ELN cases, such as drug trafficking indictments, but this hostage-taking case stalled, possibly due to the group's decentralized structure, peace talks (which began in 2014 but collapsed in 2017), and challenges in locating mid-level commanders in remote areas.
- 2021–2025: Still No Resolutions: As of October 2025, the four defendants remain fugitives with no reported arrests or extraditions for these charges. Renewed U.S.-Colombia extraditions in 2021–2024 targeted other ELN members for narco-terrorism (e.g., Yamit Picon-Rodríguez and Henry Trigos-Celón in 2021), but none match this case. Current ELN peace negotiations (resumed in 2022) have not addressed historical kidnappings like this one, and the group's ongoing operations (including recent abductions in 2024) complicate accountability. The case underscores persistent challenges in prosecuting guerrilla crimes amid Colombia's transitional justice efforts, where the focus has shifted to domestic tribunals like the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) for FARC-related atrocities, but not directly for ELN.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.