Catatumbo, Colombia – The Catatumbo region, which stretches along the border with Venezuela in the department of Norte de Santander, is Colombia’s most volatile frontier.
The border region, rich in oil reserves and coca crops but impoverished and neglected, has historically been the scene of fierce competition between armed groups fighting for control of territory.
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Colombia’s largest existing guerrilla force, the National Liberation Army (ELN), maintains a strong and organized presence, operating across the country’s porous border with Venezuela.
So some of their fighters come to pick up Al Jazeera’s reporting team and drive us to meet their commanders.
Tensions remain high in the region. In January, thousands of people were displaced by fighting between the ELN and rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which remains active in some parts of the country despite a peace agreement signed in 2016.
The battle is over control of territory and access to the border with Venezuela, which is a key means of smuggling drugs out of the country.
Once you enter this area, you will quickly find that the ELN is in complete control here. There is no evidence of the presence of the country’s military. ELN flags decorate side streets, and their signs send a clear message about how the group’s members view modern-day Colombia.
“Perfect peace is a failure,” they say.
There is no cell phone signal either. People told Al Jazeera’s team that phone companies don’t want to pay taxes to armed groups that control territory.
When President Gustavo Petro took office, he promised to implement a complete peace plan with Colombia’s armed groups. However, negotiations, especially with the ELN, were not easy.
Government officials suspended peace talks because of the fighting in Catatumbo, but now say they are ready to restart them.
Al Jazeera met with Commanders Ricardo and Silvana at a small house in the mountains. They say interviews must be quick because they are concerned about the possibility of attack or reconnaissance drones flying over the area.
The commander is accompanied by several combatants. When you ask how many people are in the area, they answer: “There are thousands of us, but we are not all in uniform. There are also urban guerrillas.”
The government estimates the number of ELN fighters to be around 3,000. However, this number could be even higher.
Commander Ricardo, who is in charge of the area, said he believed there may be a chance for peace.
“The ELN has been fighting for a political solution for 30 years against all odds,” he says. “We believed that with Petro, this process would move forward. But that didn’t happen. There has never been peace in Colombia. All we have is peace in the grave.”
The group and the government had been meeting in Mexico before the talks were suspended. “If the agreement reached in Mexico still stands, the Central Command will also agree that it can pave the way for a political solution to this conflict,” General Ricardo told Al Jazeera.
US drug threat
But it’s not just the fight against the Colombian state that armed groups are wary of here. U.S. military operations against drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, and the United States’ aggressive stance against the government of neighboring Venezuela, have given an international dimension to what was once an internal conflict in Colombia.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has called these people “narco-terrorists” rather than guerrillas, and has not ruled out attacking them inside Colombia.
The U.S. operation, which began in early September, killed more than 62 people, including Venezuelan and Colombian nationals, and destroyed 14 boats and a semi-submersible.
Some of the commanders have had extradition requests from the United States, and the government says they are wanted.
US attacks on ships suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and a military buildup in the region to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro are seen by the ELN as new acts of US imperialism.
The US government claims that one of these boats belonged to the ELN. “Why not capture them and show the world what they captured and what they are trafficking?” Commander Ricardo asks. “But no, they eliminate them with bombs.”
He also warned of the possibility of the ELN joining the fight against the United States. “The hypothetical that Trump attacks Venezuela, we have to see how we respond, and we’re not alone in that,” he says. “(It’s) all over Latin America, because I’m sure there will be a lot of people who will take up arms and fight because it’s too much. The fact that the United States can trample on people without respecting their self-determination has to end.”
The ELN was inspired by the Cuban Revolution. However, over the years it has been involved in kidnappings, murders, extortion, and drug trafficking.
Commander Silvana, who joined the group as a teenager, says the ELN is different from other armed groups in the country.
“Our principles say we are not involved in drug trafficking,” she says. “We have communicated this to the international community. What we have is taxes on territory that we have controlled for more than 60 years. And if there is coca, of course we will tax it as well.”
Colombia has been a key ally of the United States in the fight against drug trafficking in the region for decades. But Petro increasingly questioned U.S. policy in the Caribbean, arguing that the U.S. approach to security and immigration reflected outdated Cold War logic rather than the region’s current realities.
He criticized the US military presence and naval operations near Venezuela, warning that such tactics risked escalating tensions rather than promoting cooperation.
President Trump accused Petro, a former guerrilla, of being a drug trafficker himself.
Petro angrily wrote to X: “Colombia has never been disrespectful to the United States. On the contrary, it has always loved its own culture very much. But you are disrespectful and ignorant about Colombia.”
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned President Trump’s comments as offensive and a direct threat to the country’s sovereignty, and said it would seek international support to protect Petro and Colombia’s autonomy.
The United States’ bellicose approach to Venezuela and Colombia, both led by leftist presidents, and the increasing likelihood of US military intervention risk turning Colombia’s local conflict into a broader regional conflict.
Everyone on the ground is currently assessing how the U.S. government would respond if it gave the military the green light to attack Venezuela.
