At least 19 people were killed in a Venezuelan army strike on a Colombian guerrilla camp inside Venezuela, an NGO, FundaRedes, and a source close to the operation reported on Sunday.
The rights group, FundaRedes, which monitors abuses in Venezuela’s border states, initially reported nine deaths from the attack carried out early Friday in Apure State, before the toll rose with additional bodies recovered.
Juan Francisco Garcia, a coordinator with the group, told AFP on Sunday that “another 10 bodies” had been transported to the state capital San Fernando the day after the attack.
The attack targeted a camp of the National Liberation Army, a Colombian guerrilla group known by its Spanish initials, ELN.
Video shared by FundaRedes showed bodies lying on the ground, trees knocked down and the ruins of what appeared to be a campsite.
A Venezuelan military source close to the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attack had been supported by US intelligence.
“We had help from the CIA and the FBI. This was an order from the United States,” the source said.
Requests for comment from the US State Department and Venezuelan government were not immediately answered.
The strikes were carried out by drones and attack helicopters targeting the camp, which was located in a rural, forested area in the southwest of Apure, the military source said.
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The attack took the guerrillas by surprise — they had no time to react, the source said, noting that most of the people killed were Venezuelan nationals.
After the attack, bodies were initially transported to the town of Puerto Paez, which lies across a river from Colombia.
“Several of the bodies were completely mangled. Even as they were being taken to San Fernando, they still smelled of burnt flesh,” a resident of Puerto Paez told AFP.
Several armed groups engage in drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling along Venezuela and Colombia’s porous 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile) border, including dissident members of the now-defunct FARC and the ELN.
The ELN has been among the most powerful rebel groups in Latin America since the FARC guerrilla army signed a peace accord with the Bogota government in 2016.
The military operation along the border may represent the latest shift in Venezuelan policy since the US ouster of Nicolas Maduro in January.
Venezuela’s government has since been led by Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy who has won vocal support from US President Donald Trump for bending to his administration’s demands.
Colombia has for years accused Venezuela’s leftist government of turning a blind eye to Colombian rebel groups in border areas.
Human rights advocate and military affairs expert Rocio San Miguel said the Friday attack reflects a “change in doctrine” within the Venezuelan military.
The military source told AFP that Venezuelan forces were “going to continue combing through the area because we believe there are more camps.”
The operation also comes as Colombia’s newly elected hard-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, ramps up a violent crackdown on the ELN and drug trafficking groups in his country.
Colombia has joined over a dozen other Latin American and Caribbean nations in a US-led regional effort to combat drug trafficking and organized crime across the region.
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