President Abelardo de la Espriella launched a joint military task force on Monday to confront rebel groups and drug gangs in Colombia’s northeast. The move ends the government’s reliance on peace talks and returns it to offensive operations against armed criminal groups.
The new force, Urano, will bring together army, navy and air force troops, along with police officers. One of its main jobs is to stop the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN and Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group, from stealing gasoline and diesel from a pipeline running from the country’s Caribbean coast to a refinery in Barrancabermeja.
The Fuel Theft Problem
De la Espriella didn’t mince words about what the stolen fuel pays for. He accused the ELN of taking it to “feed” criminal economies. “They use it to make cocaine, to power illegal mines and to generate income for terrorist activities,” he said Monday at a ceremony in Valledupar.
That’s a pointed description of a pipeline meant to carry legitimate energy supplies to a refinery. Instead, the president said, armed groups have turned it into a revenue stream that props up both the drug trade and illegal mining.
A Return to a Proven Model
The approach isn’t new. For almost two decades, Colombia’s military deployed joint task forces of army, navy and air force troops to fight rebel groups in rural areas. Commanders in Bogota oversaw the forces, which helped the military win key victories against the FARC rebels before the group signed a peace deal in 2016.
Then officials shelved the strategy. Two years ago, former President Gustavo Petro’s administration dropped it, seeking to give army commanders in rural areas greater control over operations. Some critics said the decision weakened Colombia’s military.
De la Espriella, a conservative sworn into office in August, is reversing that call. He’s also canceled peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups. Restoring joint task forces, he said, will let the government confront rebel groups and drug gangs with greater force.
Government Response
The president put the shift in blunt terms. “There will be no negotiations or empathy with terrorism,” he said.
The move marks a clean break from the previous administration’s posture. Petro’s government pursued dialogue and decentralized command; De la Espriella is betting on centralized coordination from Bogota and combined-arms pressure on armed groups. Police officers’ inclusion in Urano adds a law-enforcement dimension to what is otherwise a military structure.
Why This Matters:
The fight over the pipeline is also a fight over who controls Colombia’s economic arteries. Fuel stolen from a state-linked pipeline doesn’t just cost the government revenue; according to De la Espriella, it finances cocaine production, illegal mining and attacks. Cutting that supply line raises a basic question: can the state protect its own infrastructure and enforce property rights in the countryside?
The strategic shift carries a risk worth watching. The earlier joint-task-force model scored real victories against the FARC, but it ended in a negotiated deal, and the current president has ruled out talks entirely. Whether force alone can deliver lasting results against the ELN and drug gangs—and at what cost—will test this policy. Investors and rural communities in the northeast will be watching for results, not rhetoric.