Venezuelan bombing of ELN camp reported to kill 19

A Venezuelan military bombing of an ELN guerrilla camp in Apure state on Friday killed 19 people, the human rights organisation Fundaredes said, in an operation no Venezuelan authority had confirmed by Saturday evening.

Why it matters: The reported strike puts Venezuela's armed forces in direct combat with a Colombian guerrilla group on Venezuelan soil, in a border state where armed groups have been reported for years, and a confirmed toll of this size would mark a sharp escalation in Apure.

Data as of Reports of October 31, 2026, in Spanish. The Fundaredes account was read in full in this run in El Nacional and in concordant reports in Notiprimicia, Diario Versión Final and Alberto News; El Pitazo carried the same account in the feed pool, but its page could not be opened directly in this run. El Nacional names no municipality for the site; the Pedro Camejo municipality detail is from Notiprimicia. Every figure comes from Fundaredes Apure coordinator Juan Francisco García Escalona, sourced to residents of Puerto Páez; no Venezuelan official confirmation of the operation or the toll existed in the reporting, so the item ships at grade C as a single-source claim. Developing item.

Venezuela’s armed forces bombed a camp of Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group in Apure state on Friday, according to Juan Francisco García Escalona, the Apure coordinator of the human rights organisation Fundaredes, who said 19 people were killed. The attack took place at Buena Vista del Meta, in Pedro Camejo municipality near the Colombian border; nine bodies were taken to San Fernando de Apure for forensic identification, ten remained at the site, and an unspecified number of wounded crossed into Colombia, García said, citing residents of Puerto Páez.

The defence analyst Rocío San Miguel relayed the same local reports and said an official statement was still awaited. No Venezuelan authority had confirmed the operation or the death toll in the reporting, and the figures rest on the Fundaredes account alone.

Venezuelan bombing of ELN camp reported to kill 19

Sources