Colombia's ELN guerrillas place communities in lockdown citing Trump's 'intervention' threats

Colombia's ELN guerrilla group said Friday it had ordered civilians in areas under its control to stay home for three days starting Sunday, while it carries out military exercises in response to "intervention" threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump said earlier this month that any country that produces cocaine and sells it to the United States was "subject to attack."

The ELN, the oldest surviving guerrilla group in the Americas, controls key drug-producing regions of Colombia and vowed Friday to fight for the country's "defense" in the face of Trump's "threats of imperialist intervention."

It urged civilians in areas it controls to stay indoors for 72 hours starting 6:00 a.m. on Sunday.

"It is necessary for civilians not to mix with fighters to avoid accidents," the group said in a statement.

With a force of about 5,800 combatants, the ELN -- the Spanish acronym for National Liberation Army -- is present in more than a fifth of Colombia's 1,100-plus municipalities, according to the Insight Crime research center.

The ELN has taken part in failed peace negotiations with Colombia's last five governments.

Two years of peace talks with the government of incumbent Gustavo Petro -- Colombia's first-ever leftist president -- were suspended after the rebels intensified armed attacks in parts of the country.

While professing to be driven by leftist, nationalist ideology, the ELN is deeply involved in the drug trade and has become one of the region's most powerful organized crime groups.

It vies for territory and control of lucrative coca plantations and trafficking routes with dissident fighters that refused to lay down arms when the FARC guerrilla army disarmed under a 2016 peace deal.

Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer, according to the U.N.

AFP