A Marxist guerrilla group long designated by the United States as a terrorist organization has become a central obstacle to President Donald Trump's goal of shutting down the Venezuelan cocaine trade, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Operating along roughly 1,400 miles of the Colombia-Venezuela border, the group functions as a de facto authority, enforcing curfews, punishments and controlling smuggling routes.
The National Liberation Army (called ELN) has expanded even as U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January and the interim government in Caracas pledged limited cooperation with Washington.
Founded in the 1960s by Colombian leftists trained in Cuba, the ELN long trailed the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
After the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, "FARC," disarmed under a 2016 peace accord, the ELN filled the vacuum along the frontier.
It now controls coca fields in Catatumbo, clandestine border crossings, and gold mines in southern Venezuela, and in some towns enforces rules the state cannot, according to Colombian officials and researchers tracking the group.
The State Department designated the ELN a foreign terrorist organization on Oct. 8, 1997, a status reaffirmed across administrations.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department have accused ELN figures of a decades-long cocaine conspiracy into the United States.
In March, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Antoine Kassis, a cousin of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, on narco-terrorism charges tied to a plot to trade Syrian-sourced military weapons for roughly 500 kilograms of ELN cocaine.
Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said nearly half of ELN members along the border are now Venezuelan, a shift from a previously Colombian-dominated roster, according to the Journal.
The Journal reported that the ELN now fields roughly 7,000 fighters, citing the Wilson Center, a Washington policy group, and noting that this is up from about 2,000 a decade ago.
Independent estimates tracked by InSight Crime and other researchers have placed the group's strength at a lower level, in the 2,000-5,000 range.
The pressure campaign is active.
On Oct. 17, 2025, a U.S. strike destroyed what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth identified as an ELN drug vessel in international waters, killing three.
On Feb. 4, a day after Colombian President Gustavo Petro met Trump at the White House, Colombia's military bombed an ELN position in Catatumbo.
Petro said seven fighters were killed, though the Journal reported at least 15.
The ELN retaliated with attacks on security targets in the region.
The practical effect is a strategic bind.
Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez has reshuffled border commanders but lacks a military capable of dislodging the ELN.
Venezuelan officers have long taken cuts of the group's smuggling and mining revenues, according to InSight Crime.
Gabriel Silva, a former Colombian defense minister, told the Journal that a U.S.-led ground effort in the zone could become "a small Vietnam," citing entrenched local economies and generational ties to the group.
Colombia's May 31 presidential election now turns partly on how aggressively the next government pursues the ELN without reigniting the displacement crisis that emptied much of Catatumbo last year.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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