SUMMARY

EPL-Megateo (Ejército Popular de Liberación - Megateo; Popular Liberation Army - Megateo) was formed as a splinter faction of EPL after the latter signed a peace agreement with the government of Colombia on 15 February 1991. The former leader of EPL, Francisco Caraballo, opposed the peace process and left the group with approximately 300 men. According to some accounts, four fronts of the EPL continued to fight the government under Caraballo’s leadership after the agreement. The group suffered a number of setbacks in the latter part of the 1990s but they grew in importance in the early 2000s as they took control over much of the cocaine traffic moving through the Catatumbo region in Norte de Santander in north-east Colombia. EPL-Megateo collaborated with FARC and ELN in the region, supplying coca base and cocaine to criminal groups including the Rastrojos, a drug cartel active in Valle del Cauca and Cali. According to official figures, the EPL had about 200 members as of October 2019.

EPL-Megateo (then EPL-FC) was led by Francisco Caraballo until he was arrested along with his second in command, in 1994. Caraballo continued to lead the group from prison but in the early 2000s a new leader, Victor Navarro, alias ‘Megateo’, rose in importance and took as leader of the group. Megateo was reportedly killed during a military operation in August 2015. Megateo's successor, Guillermo León Aguirre, alias “David León,” was captured in Medellín on 15 December 2016 and then replaced by Jade Navarro Barbaso, alias “Caracho”. After the death of “Caracho” the group was led by Reinaldo Peñaranda, alias Pepe, and Luis Antonio Quiceno, alias Pácora, but when Pepe was captured in 2019 the group lost its strength and the remnants sought an alliance with ELN. From 2019 the group, also referred to as Los Pelosos, was led by ‘Grillo’ and ‘Condor’.