President Abelardo de la Espriella launched a joint task force on Monday to fight rebel groups and drug gangs in northeast Colombia. The move shifts the government from peace talks to military offensives. The new force, Urano, will coordinate the state’s armed apparatus, and De la Espriella has canceled talks with the country’s remaining rebel groups.
A military strategy returns
De la Espriella said Urano’s main missions include stopping the National Liberation Army, Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group, from stealing gasoline and diesel from a pipeline running from the Caribbean coast to a refinery in Barrancabermeja. The president accused the group, also known as the ELN, of taking fuel to “feed” criminal economies.
“They use it to make cocaine, to power illegal mines and to generate income for terrorist activities,” De la Espriella said Monday at a ceremony in Valledupar. His description sets out the government’s case for force. The announcement names military offensives, not negotiations, as the chosen instrument.
For almost two decades, Colombia’s military used joint task forces of army, navy and air force troops to fight rebel groups in rural areas. Commanders in Bogota oversaw those forces. The government is restoring that centralized model, and police officers will also serve in Urano.
Command from above
The strategy changed two years ago, when former President Gustavo Petro’s administration dropped the joint task forces and sought to give army commanders in rural areas greater control over operations. Some critics said that decision weakened Colombia’s military. De la Espriella, a conservative sworn into office in August, has reversed course: he says joint forces will let the government confront rebel groups and drug gangs with greater force.
The earlier forces helped the military achieve key victories against the FARC rebels before the group signed a peace deal in 2016, 10 years ago. That history now sits beside the administration’s return to a military structure overseen by commanders in Bogota. The account gives no detail about how people living in the northeast will be affected by the new force, or what role they might have in decisions about its operations.
There’s no grassroots response, mutual-aid effort, or community organizing described in the report. It doesn’t mention an electoral or legislative route to address the conflict, or any NGO or nonprofit involved. What it records is a choice made by the president and carried out through military and police institutions.
No negotiations, says the president
De la Espriella presented the task force as a way to apply greater force against rebel groups and drug gangs. He also made clear that his government has shut the door on talks with the remaining rebel groups.
“There will be no negotiations or empathy with terrorism,” he said. The line leaves little room for anything but the state’s terms: a joint military and police operation, with force announced as the answer and negotiations canceled. The people named in the account as setting the strategy are officials and commanders; the people who may live with its consequences remain unheard.