colombianherald.com

This Wednesday, February 4, the Catatumbo region became the first scene of the new military offensive agreed between Colombia and the United States.

Around 4:00 in the morning, a coordinated operation between the Army, the Air Force and the Police discharged its firepower in the rural area between El Tarra and Tibú, leaving as a preliminary result the neutralization of seven alleged members of the ELN and the dissidents of the 33rd Front.

From Washington, President Gustavo Petro confirmed that this is the 14th bombing of his mandate and sent a direct message to the guerrillas: it is time to hand over the weapons and infrastructure of multinational drug trafficking if they want to return to the path of peace.

This coordinated operation is the immediate response to the commitments made less than 24 hours ago at the White House, where Petro gave Donald Trump a list of “joint high-value objectives.”

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In this list, the alias name “Pablito” stands out, the feared commander of the ELN’s Eastern War Front, for whom the intelligence forces of both countries have already begun an unprecedented hunt.

The Colombian president was emphatic in pointing out that drug trafficking is moving towards the border with Venezuela, so the goal is to “de-narcotize” the area in a period of less than two months, capturing the “kingpin bosses.”

While the bombs were falling in Norte de Santander, Petro invited the Catholic Church to form an international scientific verification mission to dismantle drug routes.

In addition, he called on the Catatumbo peasantry to begin voluntary crop substitution.

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