As Colombian troops push through the dense Amazon rainforest in a full-scale war against guerrilla militant groups, technology is reshaping how they fight. After four years of left-wing president Gustavo Petro’s ‘Total Peace’ strategy, the new government led by far-right president Abelardo de la Espriella, is opting for violent confrontation. But the landscape of conflict in Colombia has radically transformed since 2022.
Buzzing high above the tree canopy, unmanned drones are now terrorising civilians and government forces near the well-trodden drug corridors, through which billions of dollars worth of cocaine is trafficked. It is an alarming development for people trying to go about their lives. His election in June this year caused significant trepidation, amid promises of total warfare and warnings to militants that they have two options: prison or death.
The millionaire lawyer, who describes himself as an outsider and a huge admirer of the US president - nicknamed by analysts as a “mini-me Trump” - beat leftist senator Iván Cepeda by just one per cent of the vote. At the centre of his campaign was a commitment to deal forcefully with organised crime, amid a widespread view that Petro’s peace strategy has not worked. De la Espriella’s first weeks in office were bloody.
Sworn in on August 7, that month became the deadliest for clashes between Colombian security forces and armed groups since ACLED started collecting data in 2018, with 84 deaths. The reaction by armed groups to the all-out war was instant and “centered on the new technology” they have been developing: drones. In the first three weeks of the new government, around 30 drone attacks on security forces were recorded, mostly in the Cauca and Norte de Santander regions.
This was quadruple the number in the three previous weeks. Colombia has now become the epicentre of drone warfare in Latin America; across the region, 97 of the 182 municipalities where the analysts record weaponised drone events were Colombian. In 2023, ACLED recorded just one event of weaponised drones, rising rapidly to around 150 in 2025.
In 2026 so far, there have already been nearly 200. The armed drones are most commonly used in areas with high levels of drug trafficking where militia - with greater financial resources with which to modernise - have been assimilating each other’s tactics, Breda says. The far-left guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN) started using drones after a clash with the 33rd Front, dissidents of the powerful FARC militia.
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