Colombia's Drug-Funded Rebels Are Back in Action Big-Time [View all]

[Bacchus4.0]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/colombias-drug-funded-eln-rebels-and-farc-dissidents-are-back-in-action-big-time

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The National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s last active Marxist insurgency, began its “paro armado,” a “strike” enforced with guns and violence, at 6:00 a.m. last Friday. Dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who have rejected that group’s 2016 peace deal with the government, also participated in the offensive.

The Colombian military claims there have been at least 117 “terrorist acts” since Friday, crippling roads and infrastructure, and leading one national news outlet to declare a “partial state collapse.”

The paro was supposed to have ended after 72 hours, but at least some guerrilla cells ignored the deadline imposed by ELN leadership. Perhaps the most devastating incident occurred late Monday night, when a car bomb went off near a military checkpoint in the southwestern Cauca region, killing seven civilians and wounding 13. Not until Wednesday could the country begin to feel that some level of calm had returned.
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The ELN appears to have been growing stronger of late, swelling its ranks with former FARC members, Venezuelans fleeing that country’s chaos, and forced recruitment in rural regions.