Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Fundaredes, a far-right-aligned NGO, and human-rights activist Rocío San Miguel, also far-right-aligned, reported a Venezuelan military bombing in a border area of Apure state on Saturday, October 31. Fundaredes shared a video showing bodies on the ground, fallen trees, and what appears to be the remains of a camp in a wooded area.
The NGO said the images were recorded on Friday, October 30. Its director, Javier Tarazona, said a coordinator with the NGO had seen the first nine bodies. Tarazona was recently released from prison, where he had been held since 2021 on charges of incitement to hatred and terrorism, as reported by Orinoco Tribune.
https://orinocotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Infobae_ELN_Apure_video_360p.mp4
Neither Venezuelan nor Colombian authorities had publicly commented on the reported operation. Tarazona called it “the first bombing by Venezuela against the ELN,” a Colombian guerrilla group. The video and statements cited by the NGO do not independently establish the identity of those killed or confirm that the camp belonged to the Colombian guerrilla group.
Various armed groups operate along the 2,219-kilometer Colombia-Venezuela border, including FARC dissident factions and paramilitary forces. The area has also faced illegal mining and drug trafficking, illicit activities close linked to these armed groups.
San Miguel, a far-right NGOist who was also recently released from prison, said residents reported the attack and identified the dead as ELN members. She warned that as many as ten other people may have been killed in the Buena Vista del Meta sector, which borders Colombia’s Vichada department. Those claims remain unconfirmed.
Border conflict and displacement
Heavy clashes between Venezuelan military forces and Colombian paramilitary groups have been reported over decades; most recently in Apure in 2021, displacing entire communities in Apure and Colombia’s Cauca department. Venezuela has also reported repeated confrontations with Colombian criminal groups near Apure and Táchira, particularly in 2021 and 2022, as documented by Orinoco Tribune.
Since taking office, far-right Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella has resumed a military offensive against armed groups, following the hard-line approach of his mentors, former presidents Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe. Critics argue that this strategy has aggravated Colombia’s longstanding violence rather than resolving it.
De la Espriella militarized Cúcuta, a city on the Venezuelan border, after a recent wave of murders attributed to illegal armed groups. He had earlier militarized Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. In recent weeks, attacks by Colombian armed groups have been reported in at least four Venezuelan states. Meanwhile, Indigenous leaders have warned of escalating violence in Amazonas and Bolívar as armed groups seek control of illegal mining. At the same time, US and Western corporate interests begin to resume operations in the area.
Since the January 3 US bombing of Venezuela—which killed more than 100 people, including 32 Cuban and 47 Venezuelan soldiers, and resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and Deputy Cilia Flores—the country has been forced to align with Washington’s interests on several fronts.
Colombia Militarizes Border City With Venezuela After Internal Wave of Violence
If confirmed, the reported Apure strike would be the second major operation this year after a June 9 bombing at the Brisas del Kuyuní mine in Las Claritas, Bolívar state. That operation, which was supported by the US, killed Héctor “El Niño” Guerrero, head of the Tren de Aragua criminal group.
A month ago, another clash between armed groups and Venezuelan military personnel reportedly left one person dead and five wounded.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SF
From Orinoco Tribune via This RSS Feed.