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For decades, the National Liberation Army (The n) had been kept off the radar of the US authorities. At least when it comes to drug trafficking.
Although this group has been considered a terrorist by this country since 1999, until now they had not been linked to drug trafficking. That is why it was striking that Washington will request extradition last February to 11 of its members.
(Read here: The three indicated ELN guerrillas who are requested in extradition).
One of which, that of José Gabriel Álvarez Ortiz, has already been approved by the Supreme Court of Justice and signed by the president Ivan Duque. He is the first member of this group to face charges before a court in this country, in Texas, for this crime.
The curious thing is that, to date, the ELN does not appear as a drug trafficking organization in any of the lists that the US makes annually and where it usually identifies those who engage in this activity.
In it Treasury Department, The Office for Asset Control (OFAC), includes the ELN as an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) and as a SDGT (Specially Designated Global Terrorist) dated this March 31. Both categories imply financial sanctions and asset blocking against the group. But they are not listed as SDNT (Specially Designated Drug Trafficker) or SDNTK (Specially Designated Drug Trafficker), two categories that emerge from the so-called Clinton List and are directly associated with drug trafficking.
(Read Here: Government authorizes the first extradition to the United States of a member of the ELn).
To put it in context, the FARC, the FARC dissidents and groups like The Urabeños and the Gulf Clan if they receive this treatment by the Treasury department and it implies that all its members are subject to financial penalties.
Likewise, in the last two official reports in which the United States evaluates world drug trafficking and those responsible for it, the ELN does not appear either.
(Read Here: Eln situation before the Treasury Department).
The sources of illegal financing that this group has used in the past – extortive kidnapping, illegal mining, etc.) have begun to dry up and that is why they are gravitating towards drug trafficking.
In the Annual Drug Assessment carried out by the give corresponding to the year 2020, the dissidents of the Farc and Bacrim (Urabeños, Clan del Golfo) appear as the main responsible for drug trafficking in the country. And other “small groups” are well mentioned, they are not identified by names.
And the same is true of the 2020 annual report on drug trafficking that the State Department published in March.
Eln drink spaces left by the Farc
According to multiple sources consulted by the US, the emergence of the Eln as a narco group, at least from the judicial perspective in the US, is a relatively new phenomenon. According to these sources, they have begun to detect that since the signing of the peace accords in 2016, When part of the Farc demobilized and left the business, gaps were created in the chain that have begun to be filled by other groups, including the Eln.
In addition, they argue, the sources of illegal financing that this group has used in the past – extortive kidnapping, illegal mining, smuggling, etc.) have begun to dry up and that is why they are gravitating towards drug trafficking.
The other thing that the authorities explain is that generally the investigative work of the DEA and the processes before the US courts generally precede this type of global designations that usually require an interagency review that takes time.
In other words, it is very likely that in the coming months the group as a whole will begin to appear higher on the radar and end up directly related in the OFAC lists and in the DEA and State Department reports.
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SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
On Twitter @ sergom68
