How $600 Drones Are Outsmarting Colombia’s Billion-Dollar Military
Posted on: Feb 21, 2026 15:30 IST | Posted by: Nytimes
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Security officials say easy access by guerrilla groups to commercial drones, cheaply modified into deadly weapons, has put the nation’s army on its heels.
Max Bearak and
Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia
Colombian soldiers defending a state-owned oil pumping station near the border with Venezuela were under attack. Two powerful insurgent groups that have been fighting the Colombian state for decades had been regularly stealing fuel from it.
The soldiers were used to snipers and ambushes, but now they had to contend with a new weapon their adversaries have by the thousands: swarms of small drones, the kind hobbyists can buy on Amazon, fitted with clawlike hooks carrying grenades.
Over 15 days, the soldiers shot down 50 of them, according to four government security officials familiar with the operation. On the 16th day, a much larger drone, commonly used for spraying pesticides, appeared carrying four grenades. The battalion did not detect it in time. The grenades exploded, killing one soldier, the officials said.
The four government security officials working in active combat zones across Colombia shared similar stories with The New York Times, reflecting what they said was a worrying trend: cheap access to easily modifiable drones is upending the country’s decades-long war against insurgent groups and putting the government on its heels. Each spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.
Colombia is now taking a much harder line after years of seeking peace with armed groups, including the National Liberation Army, or ELN, which is especially active in Catatumbo, the border region where the soldier was killed and one of the country’s fiercest battlegrounds.
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