Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella launched a joint military and police task force on Monday, putting armed force at the center of a campaign to stop the National Liberation Army from taking fuel from a pipeline in the country's northeast. The government says the fuel supports criminal economies, and Urano, the new unit, will confront rebel groups and drug gangs as the administration abandons peace talks for military offensives. That's a sharp change in approach.
Fuel, Revenue and the State
The pipeline carries gasoline and diesel from Colombia's Caribbean coast to a refinery in Barrancabermeja. De la Espriella said one of Urano's main missions would be to stop the ELN, Colombia's largest remaining rebel group, from stealing that fuel.
At a ceremony in Valledupar, the president accused the group of using the fuel to “feed” criminal economies. “They use it to make cocaine, to power illegal mines and to generate income for terrorist activities,” he said Monday. Those claims put pipeline control and its fuel at the center of the government's campaign against the group's sources of income.
Urano will combine army, navy and air force troops with police officers. De la Espriella said restoring joint task forces would let the government confront rebel groups and drug gangs with greater force. His administration has canceled peace talks with the nation's remaining rebel groups, and Urano's stated mission is military confrontation, not negotiation. They're making that distinction clear.
A Strategy Reversed
Colombia's military previously deployed joint task forces to fight rebel groups in rural areas. Commanders in Bogota oversaw the forces, which brought together army, navy and air force troops. The military won key victories against FARC rebels before the group signed a peace deal in 2016.
Former President Gustavo Petro's administration dropped the joint-task-force strategy two years ago. Officials wanted army commanders in rural areas to have greater control over operations. Some critics said the change weakened Colombia's military.
De la Espriella, a conservative sworn into office in August, has reversed that approach. He canceled peace talks with the remaining rebel groups and revived centralized joint forces, now including police. At Monday's ceremony, he said, “There will be no negotiations or empathy with terrorism.” He won't reopen those talks, according to the administration's stated policy.
The administration presents the shift as a way to bring greater force against armed groups and drug gangs. The available account explains the government's security rationale and the fuel diversion it attributes to the ELN, but gives no estimates of the amount of fuel involved, the revenue generated or the operation's costs. It also reports no labor groups, workers or civilian organizations taking part in or responding to the launch. The announced task force puts the armed forces and police in the lead, while the government's former route of peace talks is no longer on offer to the remaining rebel groups. There isn't another route described.