Catatumbo, Colombia – Colombia’s most volatile border is the Catatumbo region, which straddles the border with Venezuela in the Norte de Santander department.
Rich in oil reserves and coca crops but impoverished and neglected, the border region has historically been the site of violent competition between armed groups fighting for territorial control.
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The National Liberation Army (ELN)Colombia’s largest remaining guerrilla force, operating across the porous border with Venezuela, maintains a strong and organized presence.
That’s where some of their soldiers pick up the Al Jazeera reporting team and take us to meet their commanders.
Tensions remain in the area. In January, fighting between the ELN and dissident groups in Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) which continues to operate in parts of the country despite a peace deal brokered in 2016.
The fight is for control of territory and access to the border with Venezuela, a vital route for moving drugs out of the country.
Upon entering the area, it is immediately clear that the ELN is in total control here. There is no evidence of the country’s military. ELN flags decorate the sideroads, and the symbols convey a clear message of how members of the group currently see Colombia.
“Total silence is a failure,” he says.
No mobile phone signal either. People tell the Al Jazeera team that telephone companies don’t want to pay taxes to armed groups that control the region.
When President Gustavo Petro took office, he promised to implement a comprehensive peace plan with Colombia’s armed groups. But the It was not easy to negotiate Especially with the ELN.
Government officials suspended peace talks because of the fighting in Catatumbo, but now say they are ready to resume talks.
Al Jazeera meets Commander Ricardo and Commander Silvana in a small house in the middle of the mountains. The interview needs to be quick, they say, because they are concerned about possible attack and surveillance drones roaming the area.
The commander is with some of his fighters. Asked how many there are in the area, he replies, “There are thousands of us and not everyone is in uniform. Some are urban guerrillas.”
The government estimates that the ELN has about 3,000 fighters. But the number could be higher.
Commander Ricardo, who is in charge of the region, says he believes there may be a chance for peace.
“The ELN has been fighting for a political solution for 30 years with various difficulties,” he says. “We believed that with Petro, we would move forward in the process. But it didn’t happen. There has never been peace in Colombia. What we have is the peace of the grave.”
The group and the government met in Mexico before suspending talks. “If the agreements we have in Mexico are still in place, I believe our central command will agree (that) could pave the way for a political solution to this conflict”, Commander Ricardo tells Al Jazeera.
The threat of US drugs
But it’s not just the fight against the Colombian state that has armed groups on alert here. The United States military campaign against alleged drug vessels America’s aggressive posture in the Caribbean and the Pacific – and towards the government of neighboring Venezuela – has given Colombia’s once internal conflict an international dimension.
US President Donald Trump’s administration calls the men not guerrillas but “narco-terrorists” and has not ruled out attacking them on Colombian soil.
The US operation, which began in early September, has killed more than 62 people, including Venezuelan and Colombian nationals, and destroyed 14 boats and a semi-submersible.
Some of the commanders face extradition requests from the US and the government says they are wanted criminals.
The ELN sees US attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and military buildup in the region to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as another act of US imperialism.
The US government claimed that one of the boats belonged to the ELN. “Why don’t they catch them and show the world what they caught and what they’re smuggling?” Commander Ricardo asks. “But no, they wipe it out with bombs.”
He also warns of the possibility of the ELN joining the fight against the US. “In the assumption that Trump attacks Venezuela, we have to see how we respond, but it’s not just us,” he says. “(It’s) all of Latin America because I’m sure there will be many people who will take up arms and fight because it’s too much. The fact that the United States can step on people without respecting their self-determination must end.”
The ELN was inspired by the Cuban Revolution. But over the years it has been involved in kidnapping, murder, extortion and drug trafficking.
Commander Silvana, who joined the group as a teenager, says the ELN is unlike other armed groups in the country.
“Our principles dictate that we are not involved in drug trafficking,” she says. “We have told this to the international community. We have taxes in the territories we control for more than 60 years. And if there is coca, of course, we tax it too.”
Colombia has been an important US ally in the region for decades in the fight against drug trafficking. But Petro has questioned US policy in the Caribbean, arguing that Washington’s approach to security and migration reflects outdated Cold War logic rather than the region’s current reality.
He has criticized the US military presence and naval operations near Venezuela, warning that such tactics risk escalating tensions rather than encouraging cooperation.
Trump has accused Petrowho is an ex-guerrilla, himself a drug trafficker.
Petro responded angrily, writing on X, “Colombia has never been rude to America. On the contrary, it loves its culture. But you are rude and ignorant of Colombia.”
Colombia’s foreign ministry also condemned Trump’s remarks as offensive and a direct threat to the country’s sovereignty, and pledged to seek international support for the defense of Petro and Colombian autonomy.
A belligerent US approach to Venezuela and Colombia, both under leftist presidents – and the increased possibility of US military intervention – threatens to turn the local Colombian conflict into a wider regional conflict.
Everyone on the ground is now assessing how the US government will respond if it gives its military the green light to attack Venezuela.