Colombian rebels from the National Liberation Army–or ELN–have declared a nationwide stay-at-home order for Colombian residents in order to allow the group to conduct "military exercises" following President Trump's statement warning of possible land strikes to stem the flow of illicit narcotics in the region.
The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a far-left guerrilla movement, is one of the oldest counterinsurgency movements in the entire Western hemisphere, and was born out of the late 1950s when predominately poor, rural campesinos founded a guerrilla movement to push back against a central government that marginalized the local peasant populations.
The group has since become one of the most influential narco-trafficking organizations in the region, with analysts projecting the group to be present in one-fifth of the country's 1,100 municipalities, according to global research firm, Insight Crime.
The ELN issued a nationwide order to Colombia's citizens to stay in their homes for a period of 72 hours until Sunday, to allow the organization to conduct preparatory drills in response to what the group calls "imperialist" threats by the U.S. president earlier this week.
In a roundtable meeting at the White House on Wednesday, President Trump was asked by reporters, regarding recent U.S. military strikes in the region, whether he had considered speaking with Colombian President Gustavo Petro. President Trump responded by saying:
"I haven't... He's going to have himself some big problems if he doesn't wise up. Colombia is producing a lot of drugs... They make cocaine, as you know, and they sell it right into the United States, so he'd better wise up, or he'll be next."
President Trump also said in early December that any country that sells cocaine will be "subject to attack."
Colombia's president, Petro, has remained one of the region's most vocal critics of the U.S. administration's military deployment and targeted strikes campaign against suspected traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean along the border with Ecuador.
In a speech to supporters in Santa Marta, Colombia, following the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, Petro admonished the U.S. government, calling the move an act of "piracy".
Petro also added, "They [U.S.] are demonstrating why they are doing what they are doing. Oil, oil, oil."
The ELN has managed to absorb control over a trove of drug routes in the northern Colombian highlands and the country's southern lowlands abutting the nation's Amazon territory.
The rebel group has also been embroiled in constant clashes with government forces and members of the 33rd Front, a rebel offshoot of FARC dissidents who formed a separate group after the 2016 peace deal with the national Colombian government.
In a statement, the ELN warned Colombians not to travel via the country’s roadways or navigable rivers during the next 72 hours, releasing a written decree on Friday, stating:
"We, the peoples’ forces of Colombia, protest the threat of imperialist intervention in our country as a new phase of Trump’s neo-colonial plan, which aims to sink its claws even deeper into Latin American and Caribbean territories."
According to the United Nations, Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer, seconded by Peru.
