Colombia: in the midst of the earthquake disaster, the De la Espriella government launched its first bombing against guerrilla groups

The offensive against a position of the National Liberation Army (ELN) was carried out on Monday night in a rural area of ​​the Catatumbo region, in the department of Norte de Santander (northeast), the Ministry of Defense reported in a statement on Tuesday.

The far-right De la Espriella took power on Friday with the promise of intensifying air strikes against criminal groups, with support from Israel and the United States, in the midst of the worst crisis of violence in the last decade in the country. At the same time, he had to face rescue tasks in his first hours the earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale that hit the Cali area.

According to the reconstruction carried out by the newspaper El Tiempo, The troops of the Special Operations Command of the Military Forces arrived in the area as part of an operation against members of the guerrilla, which would have generated a confrontation that gave way to the deployment of air capabilities. These were carried out from K-FIR and A29 Super Tucano fighter aircraft.

When intervening in the sector, the troops would have found weapons, drones, communication elements and explosives that would be being collected while the results of the operation are consolidated.

The military operation against the guerrilla left at least three civilians injured, among them a 44-year-old woman, in a town in the municipality of San Calixto, according to the state Ombudsman’s Office. Several families had to move from their homes, denounced the organization, which asked the public force to “prevent harm to the civilian population.”

According to the Defense Ministry, the bombing was carried out with “emphasis on the protection of the civilian population” and destroyed two bunkers and five guerrilla camps. In images released by the ministry, soldiers are seen firing a cannon from the ground, in the middle of the darkness, while helicopters fly over the area.

About 1.5 tons of explosives, out of the hands of the ELN.

In the rural area of ​​Tibú and San Calixto, Norte de Santander, the @FuerzasMilCol hit a structure of this criminal organization and neutralized two of its alleged members.

Among the seized material… pic.twitter.com/iOQBOQa5IU

— Mindefensa (@mindefensa) August 12, 2026

Troops on the ground later seized 1.5 tons of explosives, including more than 400 grenades “adapted to be launched from drones”, and several automatic rifles and ammunition, as well as war, communications and quartermaster material. “We continue to weaken criminal capabilities to restore order in Norte de Santander,” celebrated the Ministry of Defense in a post on X,

De la Espriella, who succeeded Gustavo Petro in power, promised to interrupt his predecessor’s unsuccessful peace negotiations with armed groups and confront “narcoterrorism without respite.”

In his first speech as president, delivered last Friday, he said that the stage of dialogue with narco-terrorist organizations came to an end and that the State will adopt a strategy of direct confrontation. During the first days of his mandate, six members of illegal groups were killed in the first military operations in various parts of the country.