Colombian rebel group’s ‘vile terrorist attack’ injures 11, kills dog

a vile terrorist attack. No hedging, no "cycle of violence" language, no both-sides mush. Just a straight description of a group that plants bombs near civilians because it still believes it can win a war it lost politically decades ago.

The National Liberation Army has been doing this for so long that American news coverage barely blinks. That's the real story here. A Marxist guerrilla outfit that funds itself through kidnapping and drug trafficking is still active enough in 2024 to pull off attacks like this, and the response from most of the world is a shrug. Colombia has spent generations trying to negotiate its way out of this problem, and groups like the ELN keep proving that some outfits don't want a peace deal. They want leverage.

It matters that the Colombian government isn't playing along with the euphemism game this time. Calling an attack "vile" and naming the terrorist group responsible sounds obvious, but plenty of governments, including our own at times, have gone soft on that language when it's politically inconvenient. Colombia has earned the right to be blunt about who's setting off bombs in its streets.

The United States has a real stake in whether Bogota's government stays serious about this. Weak, ambivalent allies against narco-terrorism have a way of becoming permanent instability on our own hemisphere's doorstep. Plain talk from Colombia's defense minister is a good sign. Now it needs to be followed by action that actually degrades the ELN's ability to do this again.