By Entorno | 2025-07-15

As the world focuses on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a parallel front in Moscow's propaganda war is unfolding thousands of miles away, in the forgotten borderlands of Colombia and Venezuela.

There, the US-designated foreign terrorist organization National Liberation Army (ELN) has built a sophisticated media network that not only justifies its armed struggle but amplifies geopolitical narratives aligned with the interests of Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

The group's strategy wraps propaganda in the language of "alternative media," positioning the ELN as an unexpected but effective conduit for anti-Western narratives.

A June 17 investigation by the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council found that the ELN has incorporated a wide-ranging digital communication ecosystem into its ideological machine.

This network promotes and repackages content from state-controlled media such as RT en Español, Sputnik Mundo, HispanTV and Venezuelan pro-government voices, while targeting the United States, NATO, the European Union and their allies.

An unlikely ally for the Kremlin

The DFRLab report, titled "Kremlin-affiliated outlets find digital ally in Colombia's oldest guerrilla group," documents a multichannel operation of more than 100 entities: websites, social media accounts, messaging apps and podcasts. The ELN uses these platforms to distribute both original and foreign ideological content.

According to the DFRLab, the group's aim is not just to justify its insurgency but to promote a worldview sympathetic to authoritarian regimes challenging Western influence.

One striking example is the guerrilla-affiliated outlet El Karibeño Rebelde, which between April 2024 and April 2025 retweeted 144 posts from Kremlin-linked outlets, many of them focused on Russia's war in Ukraine, US policy in Latin America or the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Those posts portrayed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "little dictator," echoing Kremlin talking points that frame NATO as aggressors and claim that Ukraine "attacked Russia in 2014."

As the DFRLab notes, the ELN's messaging mirrors the Kremlin's geopolitical narrative, localized for Latin America: denunciations of US "imperialism," positioning of multipolarity as an alternative to Western unipolarity and attacks on liberal democracies' credibility.

From jungle radios to global platforms

Rather than operating as a centralized bloc, the ELN's media ecosystem functions like a digital confederation. Each regional war front runs its outlets.

Yet all follow a shared editorial script: they discredit mainstream Colombian media like Semana, El Tiempo or Caracol Radio, while branding their platforms as vehicles for information resistance.

That framing of supposed media neutrality helps the group reach disaffected audiences and mask its violent character.

ELN commander Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, also known as Antonio García, repeatedly used the X platform to promote "armed strikes" or to intimidate journalists, DFRLab found. Social networks have suspended his accounts multiple times, but the group quickly regenerates digitally, often within days, by launching new accounts with similar names.

Between February and May 2025 alone, the ELN created at least seven new accounts on X.

The ELN has evolved from 1980s-era clandestine radio stations to a polished digital presence across platforms like Amazon Music, Ivoox, Telegram and TikTok.

Ranpal, short for Radio Nacional Patria Libre, has moved much of its audio content to podcasts, making it accessible in Venezuela and beyond.

Back in 2014, Venezuelan outlet Armando.info reported that the ELN used children's books and community radio stations to recruit minors in border zones. A 2015 report by BBC Mundo found that Antorcha Estéreo, an ELN-operated station, was broadcasting from Cúcuta, possibly even from Venezuelan territory.

But the ELN's digital content goes far beyond ideology. It justifies armed operations, targets rival groups and spreads intimidation.

DFRLab identified posts showing minors carrying weapons, communiqués following attacks and guerrilla songs that glorify the insurgency, all presented through accounts that self-identify as independent media.

In Catatumbo, a key ELN stronghold, clashes in 2025 between the group and rival factions have taken at least 126 lives and displaced at least 66,000 inhabitants. Despite the violence, the ELN's media channels continue to frame it as a political organization seeking peace.

Though the ELN operates primarily in Colombia and Venezuela, its digital reach spans Latin America, Spain and the United States. DFRLab found ELN-affiliated podcast accounts and social media handles with followers in multiple countries. Some broadcast via Spanish-based Ivoox and Amazon Music.

By presenting itself as "alternative media," the ELN circumvents platform restrictions, gains legitimacy and draws in new audiences, especially those disillusioned with institutions and mainstream politics.

Guerrilla movement or geopolitical outlet?

The ELN case shows how a local insurgency can function as a megaphone for foreign interests and how platforms originally designed for communication or entertainment can serve as delivery systems for global propaganda.

In this landscape, digital infrastructure is not merely a tool for armed struggle, it becomes a front line of the struggle itself.

As DFRLab concludes, the ELN seeks more than legitimacy: it aims to embed itself in global geopolitical discourse by amplifying foreign narratives that strengthen its cause and weaken Western influence in the region.

This convergence of local insurgency and global propaganda warfare poses urgent challenges for governments, tech platforms and civil society alike.