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Shortly after President Donald Trump terminated all subsidies to Colombia and cautioned leftist President Gustavo Petro about potential actions against drug-trafficking organizations, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reported that the U.S. Military successfully struck a drug-trafficking vessel associated with a leftist terrorist group.
“On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth shared in a post on X.
The ELN is a far-left guerrilla group recognized as a terrorist organization by multiple governments, including the United States, Colombia, the European Union, and Canada.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth explained regarding the strike. He added that three drug smugglers were killed during the operation, which occurred in international waters, with no U.S. personnel harmed.
The ELN controls coca-growing areas along Colombia’s Pacific coast and the Venezuelan border, managing cultivation zones and trafficking routes. This influence allows the group to impose extortion fees on coca farmers, processors, and traffickers, generating millions annually. Analysts note that ELN fronts have expanded into these criminal enterprises, particularly following Colombia’s peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder, and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security, and poison our people,” Hegseth stated. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”
The announcement follows President Trump’s warning to Colombia’s self-identified socialist leader, Gustavo Petro, that the U.S. would take action against drug-trafficking organizations in Colombia if Petro’s government did not intervene.
During a recent UN General Assembly session, Petro delivered a fiery speech denouncing the U.S. as an “imperialist” state and called for legal action against President Trump. He has also sought to strengthen ties with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as the U.S. intensifies efforts against Venezuelan drug-traffickers.
“President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large-scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long-term rip-off of America,” he remarked.
Pointing to Petro’s low approval ratings, which have lingered in the high 20s, Trump characterized him as a “low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America.” He further warned Petro that his government must “close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”
