US, Colombia vow joint fight against guerrillas: Minister

Bogota: Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro agreed with his US counterpart Donald Trump to take “joint action” against cocaine-smuggling guerrillas on the border with Venezuela, Bogota’s interior minister said Thursday.

The two leaders held their first phone call on Wednesday, de-escalating tensions after Trump had threatened military action against Colombia following the ouster of Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro by US forces.

Trump and Petro “committed to taking joint actions” against the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s last remaining major armed rebel group, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said in an interview with Blu Radio.

Colombia accuses the ELN of launching attacks and kidnappings of Colombian soldiers and retreating to rear-base locations in Venezuela.

Petro asked Trump “to help strike hard at the ELN on the border” with Venezuela, Benedetti said.

He said the guerrillas must “be attacked in their rear” as well as on Colombian soil.

Colombia and Venezuela share a porous 2,200-kilometre border where various armed groups vie for control of the profits from drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling.

Carlons Venlandia, a former ELN leader turned conflict analyst, told AFP the rebel group has “extensive experience in guerrilla warfare on the ground.”

But he added “they can’t do anything in a technological war” like the one Washington could wage if it took military action against the ELN.

Later Thursday, the leader of a separate rebel grouping summoned other guerrilla commanders to a meeting to discuss the US removal of Maduro.

“We know we have had our differences in the past...but today we are facing a common enemy” in the United States, said Ivan Mordisco, leader of the remnants of the dissolved FARC armed movement, also thought to have rear-bases in Venezuela.

“We summon you urgently to a summit of insurgent commanders from Colombia and all over our America,” he said, in a video sent to media.

Mordisco said the rival rebel groups should work together against “all forms of imperialist aggression.”

“Let us forge a great insurgent front to drive back our enemies.”

Petro accepted Trump’s invitation to meet in Washington, despite fierce exchanges over recent days in which Trump branded him a drug-trafficker and the Colombian leader vowed to take up arms against any US assault.

After Petro criticized the United States for seizing Maduro in Caracas on January 3, Trump told Petro to “watch his ass.”

Washington and Bogota have enjoyed security cooperation for decades, but ties have deteriorated since Trump began his second term last January.