For decades, Colombia viewed ELN as a stubborn domestic Marxist insurgency. But a new investigation by InSight Crime reveals a terrifying transformation. ELN has ceased to be solely Colombian. It has morphed into a “binational organization,” a hybrid army that governs territory, acts as a paramilitary enforcer for the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and controls a drug trafficking empire stretching from the Catatumbo jungles in Colombia to the Caribbean Sea.
On July 25, 2025, the midday of La Fria, a Venezuelan town just kilometers from the Colombian border, was shattered by gunfire. Residents pulled out their phones to film a black truck loaded with armed men, some in civilian clothes, others in Venezuelan military fatigues, spraying bullets at a rival vehicle.
In most nations, this would be a scandal. In Tachira, Venezuela, it was just another error. The National Liberation Army (ELN) exercises such absolute control over the area that Venezuelan authorities typically allow them to operate with total impunity, suggesting the shootout was merely a case of confusion rather than rebellion.
As the United States builds up its military presence in the Caribbean, framing its operations as a war on “narcoterrorism,” ELN stands as the “perfect” criminal army, impossible to defeat in Colombia so long as it sustains its operations on the other side of the border.
InSight Crime reveals ELN has achieved relative governance in Venezuela
ELN’s consolidation in Venezuela is no longer a matter of hiding in the jungle; it is a matter of governance. In border states such as Tachira, the guerrilla group has replaced the state, maintaining a “symbiotic” relationship with Venezuelan security forces. This alliance was forged in political fire. In 2018, Nicolas Maduro appointed Freddy Bernal as the “protector” of Tachira to wrestle control from the opposition. Bernal found a willing partner in ELN, using the guerrillas to violently expel right-wing Colombian paramilitaries such as Los Rastrojos.
Today, that alliance has evolved into a hybrid governance model. ELN paves roads, paints schools, and resolves community disputes in towns where the government is absent. They punish thieves, sometimes making them disappear, and impose strict social codes, punishing public brawlers with forced labor.
🇻🇪Facing military pressure in Colombia, the ELN has increasingly expanded in Zulia, Venezuela, where it acts as a de facto authority. How has it gained so much power in Venezuela? Read our investigation to find out: https://t.co/6z3BybWG7o pic.twitter.com/FY90alokZd
— InSight Crime (@InSightCrime) December 22, 2025
“We are fighting here, surviving, and we have learned to live with things that are not normal,” a merchant in La Fria told InSight Crime investigators, noting that the guerrillas are often more reliable than the police. This control is lucrative. While ELN once relied on illegal border crossings, or trochas, the group has adapted to the reopening of official bridges.
They now extort legal importers and customs warehouses, charging roughly US$25 per truck. With thousands of trucks crossing monthly, the extortion racket generates thousands of dollars in pure profit, solidifying their economic grip on the border.
ELN successfully exported ‘The Arauca Model’ across the border
To understand how ELN exported its grip from Colombia to Venezuela, one must look to the Colombian department of Arauca. Here, the Eastern War Front, which is the group’s wealthiest and most powerful faction, has spent decades infiltrating politics and society.
Under the command of the alias “Pablito,” this model of total social control was exported across the river into the Venezuelan state of Apure. But there is a distinct difference: In Colombia, ELN are insurgents; in Venezuela, they operate as a pro-regime paramilitary force.
The depth of this integration was made clear in July 2025, when an ELN commander identified as alias “El Mecha,” a man linked to extortion and homicide, attempted to run for municipal council on the ticket of Maduro’s ruling PSUV party. While the party withdrew support following a media outcry, the intent is clear: ELN is now part of the political system in Venezuela.
The regime needs them. When the Venezuelan military suffered humiliating defeats against FARC dissidents in 2020, Maduro turned to ELN to finish the job. The guerrillas successfully routed their rivals, solidifying their status as the guardians of the revolution and the most capable armed force in the region.
ELN has moved most of its drug labs from Colombia to Venezuela
Ideologically, ELN’s historic leaders viewed drug trafficking as an aberration. But InSight Crime’s investigation reveals that “purity” has been abandoned for profit. The group has evolved from merely taxing coca growers to full integration. ELN currently runs laboratories, securing routes, and dispatching drug shipments.
The conquest of Colombia’s Catatumbo region in early 2025 gave ELN control over one of the world’s most productive coca zones. Squeezed by Colombian military pressure, the group has moved its laboratories into Venezuela, particularly the municipality of Jesus Maria Semprun in Zulia.
The ELN has consolidated its presence in Venezuela’s Táchira state, along the border with Colombia, after years of deep cooperation and complicity with local authorities. How do communities live under its criminal rule? Read here: https://t.co/MIWKjggpKk pic.twitter.com/o74kmMWDvJ
— InSight Crime (@InSightCrime) December 24, 2025
From there, cocaine flows through a sophisticated logistical network. Routes at Lake Maracaibo or cross the porous deserts of La Guajira, where ELN exploits Indigenous communities and state abandonment, to reach the Caribbean coast. Recent discoveries, including a semi-submersible in a Venezuelan shipyard, suggest the capacity to launch shipments directly to Europe or the United States.
This trade fuels the “Cartel of the Suns,” the network of corrupt Venezuelan generals who profit from the transit. By enriching the military high command, ELN helps ensure its loyalty to Maduro, creating a cycle of corruption that keeps the regime afloat.
An unwinnable war for Bogota and Washington?
This binational reality poses a nightmare scenario for policymakers in Bogota and Washington. ELN now recruits heavily from the impoverished Venezuelan population; Colombia’s Defense Minister recently estimated that 40% of ELN fighters in Catatumbo are Venezuelan nationals.
The stakes were raised in October 2025, when the United States carried out a lethal strike on a vessel in international waters. According to U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the boat was linked to ELN and carried three “narcoterrorists”.
Hegseth compared the cartels to Al Qaeda, declaring they would be “hunted and eliminated.” Yet, experts warn that a military solution may be obsolete. ELN is prepared for a prolonged asymmetric war. “ELN is formally committed to the defense of the ‘Bolivarian revolution,'” warned former U.S. Ambassador James Story.
If the Maduro regime were to fall, ELN would not simply vanish. Instead, it is positioned to launch a low-intensity insurgency within Venezuela, utilizing the weapons and territory they have spent years accumulating.
For Colombia, the implications are dire. The hope for “Total Peace” under President Petro has crumbled against the reality that ELN no longer needs to negotiate. With a safe haven, unlimited funding from drugs and gold, and state protection next door, ELN has evolved into a force that transcends borders, an army that cannot be defeated in Colombia as long as it is the government in Venezuela.