The Venezuelan regime appears to have given the Colombian guerrilla Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) a green light to control the border between the two countries, according to an expert in the region.
In a guest essay for The New York Times, Elizabeth Dickinson, an expert on armed groups and organized crimes in Latin America, said the decision responded to fear that Colombia could serve as a back door for U.S. military operations.
The ELN, in consequence, used the context to further tighten its grip in the region. Now, Dickinson said, the ELN stands emboldened to challenge the authority of the Colombian state. In fact, they already have more control than the government in some areas there.
Elsewhere in the essay, Dickinson said that the development was taking place before the capture of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Then, he was taking steps to ensure Venezuela's interests in the region were being kept regardless of what was happening in Caracas.
Rather than dealing with the situation along with the Colombian government, U.S. President Donald Trump has clashed with counterpart Gustavo Petro, even if a phone call between the two last week defused tensions.
Dickinson noted that threats from armed groups will continue as the Trump administration seeks to control the fate of Venezuela. Moreover, the ELN's biggest allies in the Venezuelan regime continue in their posts.
Following Maduro's capture, the ELN issued a defiant statement, framing the attack as a violation of regional sovereignty and vowing armed resistance against Washington.
In a statement released by its Eastern War Front last week, the ELN said that "once again U.S. imperialism violates the national sovereignty of the countries of Our America and the world," and rejected what it described as a U.S. attack on the "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."
The group expressed "solidarity and support for the Venezuelan people and government" and called on Latin American nations to "reject the gringo aggression, defend national sovereignty, and embrace unity and popular resistance."
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