Violent guerrillas are taking Colombia's children. Unarmed Indigenous groups are confronting them

CALDONO, Colombia (AP) — When Patricia Elago Zetty's 13-year-old son went missing in Colombia's conflict-ridden southwest, she didn't hesitate. Elago and five fellow members of the Indigenous Guard trekked across mountainous terrain to confront the guerrillas they suspected of taking her son and another teenager to bolster their ranks.

When the unarmed Guard members reached the guerrillas' camp, about 30 fighters stopped them at gunpoint. After a tense wait, a tall commander stepped out from a gate, and Elago said she had come for her son. The commander said he would “verify” whether the boy was there.

After about an hour of negotiations and radio calls, five more guerrillas arrived with her son Stiven and the other boy. When she saw Stiven, Elago said, it felt like her soul returned to her body.

“He hugged me and said, ‘Mom, I never thought you’d risk so much,’” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It was a victory.”

Rescue missions like Elago's have intensified for the Indigenous Guard of the Nasa people, which formed in 2001 to protect Indigenous territories from armed groups and environmental destruction such as deforestation and illegal mining. Since 2020, as armed groups tightened their control of Nasa territory to expand illicit crops like marijuana and coca, those guerrillas have ramped up their recruitment of the region's children by dangling offers of cash and protection.

Over eight days reporting in the Cauca region, the AP spoke to more than 20 young people affected by the recruitment as well as several families grappling with the same threat. Some youths had escaped, others were rescued, and a few chose to remain with the groups.

Colombia has endured more than half a century of internal conflict fueled by inequality, land disputes and the drug trade. Leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and criminal groups have fought for control of territory — with rural, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities caught in the crossfire. A 2016 peace deal ended the war with the country’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, but violence never fully stopped.

Since the accord, child recruitment has been driven mainly by FARC dissident groups who rejected the peace process. The ELN, a Marxist guerrilla force active since the 1960s, and the Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s largest drug-trafficking gang, also forcibly recruit minors.

Violence hangs heavy over the region. During AP’s visit, two former FARC combatants who laid down arms under the peace deal were gunned down near Caldono. At the same time, families reported the disappearance of several youths — believed to have been recruited.

This is the climate in which the Guard, known as Kiwe Thegnas in the Nasa Yuwe language, now works.

For the Nasa, coca holds deep cultural, spiritual, and medicinal significance. Its exploitation to produce cocaine is seen by many as a distortion of a sacred plant — one that fuels violence and environmental destruction.

Members of the Guard carry “bastones de autoridad” — sacred staffs symbolizing moral leadership and collective responsibility. The staffs are often adorned with the traditional Guard colors of red and green — which represent blood and earth — and emblems. Elago, 39, had a small photo of her son on hers.

Steeped in spirituality, the staff is believed to offer protection from harm, giving Guard members the courage to confront armed groups. Yet more than 40 Guard members have been slain since the peace deal, according to Colombia’s Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), a longstanding organization representing Nasa and other Indigenous communities.

“They carry guns — we carry staffs. The staff represents our life, our courage,” Elago said. “They’ve aimed their rifles at us … pressed them to our chests, to our heads.”

Elago said the rebels her group confronted three years ago expressed respect for the Guard but claimed the boys had joined voluntarily, which infuriated her. She said Stiven had left home the day he went missing to collect wages he was owed for farm work near a coca-growing area controlled by FARC dissidents.

She said she challenged them: “You talk about respecting Indigenous people, but you’re killing our youth. What respect is that?”

One rebel told her he'd never seen a mother speak so boldly. But another warned: “Take care, mamma. You already smell like formaldehyde,” a chemical used to preserve dead bodies.

Not all rescues are successful.

Eduwin Calambas Fernandez, coordinator of Kiwe Thegnas in Canoas, an Indigenous reserve in northern Cauca, described leading a 2023 attempt to bring back two teenagers recruited through Facebook. They met with commanders, only to find the 15- and 16-year-old boys did not want to return and were considered by the armed groups to be old enough to decide for themselves. Calambas said that the main armed faction in his area has declared it will no longer return recruits 14 or older to their families.

Children are lured with promises of cash, cosmetic treatments, or food for their families, according to Indigenous Councils Association of Northern Cauca, or ACIN. Once inside the camps, many suffer physical abuse, political indoctrination and sexual violence — especially girls.

“Once in, it is very difficult to leave,” said Scott Campbell, the United Nations human rights chief in Colombia.

ACIN has documented 915 cases of Indigenous youth recruited there since 2016, some as young as 9. ACIN has warned of a sharp increase lately, with at least 79 children recruited between January and June.

Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office confirmed 409 cases of child recruitment during 2024, up from 342 the year before, with over 300 cases alone in Cauca, one of Colombia’s poorest departments.

Campbell called the Colombian government’s response “ineffective and untimely,” noting a lack of consistent state presence and failure to partner with Indigenous authorities on prevention. ACIN said the government has left armed groups to fill the void by providing roads, food and other basic services in remote and neglected areas.

Colombia’s Family Welfare Institute, or ICBF — the main agency protecting children — told AP it funds community programs and Indigenous‑led initiatives that have contributed to 251 children leaving armed groups in the first half of 2025. The ICBF insists it is working with Indigenous authorities and pressing armed groups to uphold a ban on recruiting minors.

From her classroom high in the mountains, Luz Adriana Diaz watches children arrive each morning under the shadow of a conflict they’re too young to fully grasp. Her small school in the village of Manuelico — reachable only by a winding road from Caldono — is surrounded by dense forest and coca fields planted and patrolled by armed groups. Banners promoting the Dagoberto Ramos front of the FARC — one of the most violent factions in Cauca — hang along the roadside.

“Since 2020, it’s been very sad — threats, recruitment, killings … living in the middle of violence," Diaz said.

Diaz has spent 14 years teaching across the Caldono municipality, but says only in this village, surrounded by coca, has the presence of armed groups felt so constant. Teachers “work with them breathing down our necks,” she said.

The Indigenous Guard has stepped up patrols outside the school to discourage recruiting. Diaz says the armed group members have come to the school to buy food, borrow chairs and interact casually with staff.

“We can’t say no,” she said. “I’ve had to be very careful.”

Several former students, some as young as 11, are now in armed groups, she said. Some left quietly. Others were taken.

One young woman who recently fled FARC dissidents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said she joined the armed group at 16 not because she was forced but to escape family problems.

She said she mainly cooked, organized supplies and cleaned weapons. She was afraid at first but was not mistreated. She eventually fled after a change in commanders left her fearing harsher treatment or being moved to a faraway region with an increased threat of combat.

Now she works with a local initiative that supports families trying to prevent their children from being recruited. She warns teens about the risks of joining armed groups.

As for the parents, she said: “I tell families they need to build trust with their children."

Fernández, a woman in her mid-30s who asked to be identified only by her last name for fear of reprisals, was 12 when armed men came looking for her in her rural Cauca community. Terrified, and with no clear way to say no, she joined the ranks of the FARC. In the years that followed, she said she endured rape, psychological abuse and starvation and saw brutal punishments against those who tried to escape.

Her escape, three years after being taken, came by chance. One night, a commander sent her to charge a cell phone. Instead of returning, she hid for days in a nearby home, protected by civilians who risked their lives to shelter her, before fleeing the region.

Now, raising three children in a village near Caldono, she watches and worries about her eldest son, now 12.

“Young people are so easily fooled … they’re shown a bit of money or a cell phone, and they think that’s just how life works,” she said. “Then they’re sent into combat zones where so many children die.”

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Children walk by decorations in the colors of red and green — which represent blood and earth, July 18, 2025, in Manuelico village, Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

With the help of Indigenous Guards, residents make a living from protected coffee cultivation, front, while coca crops grow, back right, in an area controlled by an armed group of FARC dissidents July 16, 2025, in Piendamo reserve, Cauca, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Patricia Elago Zetty, an Indigenous Guard, poses for a photo on July 16, 2025, in Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Children walk by decorations in the colors of red and green — which represent blood and earth, July 18, 2025, in Manuelico village, Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Fernández, a woman in her mid-30s who asked to be identified only by her last name for fear of reprisals, was 12 when armed men came looking for her in her rural Cauca community, poses for a photo on July 17, 2025, in Caldono, Colombia. She managed to escape after three years. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

With the help of Indigenous Guards, residents make a living from protected coffee cultivation, front, while coca crops grow, back right, in an area controlled by an armed group of FARC dissidents July 16, 2025, in Piendamo reserve, Cauca, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

In a classroom at a school, a desk sits near posters displaying educational information, some in the Nasa Yuwe language, on July 18, 2025, in Manuelico village, Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Luz Adriana Diaz, a teacher at a school in Manuelico village, poses for a photo on July 18, 2025, in Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Banners on the side of the road for the Dagoberto Ramos armed group are displayed on July 18, 2025, in Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Young dancers, in traditional Indigenous clothes, wait for a graduation ceremony to begin at a school on July 18, 2025, in Manuelico village, Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Patricia Elago Zetty, an Indigenous Guard, poses for a photo with her staff and a small photo of her son on it July 16, 2025, in Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

A few coca trees, used by Indigenous communities for ritual purposes, grow near a school on July 18, 2025, in Manuelico village, Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Indigenous Guards, including Patricia Elago Zetty, left, prepare decorations for a graduation ceremony on July 18, 2025, in Manuelico village, Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

Patricia Elago Zetty, an Indigenous Guard, poses for a photo on July 16, 2025, in Caldono, Colombia. (AP Photo/Nadège Mazars)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is headed toward a vote Wednesday on a war powers resolution that would put a check on President Donald Trump's ability to carry out further military attacks on Venezuela, but the president was putting intense pressure on his fellow Republicans to vote down the measure.

Trump has lashed out at five GOP senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week, raising doubts that the measure will ultimately pass. Yet even the possibility that the Republican-controlled Senate would defy Trump on such a high-profile vote revealed the growing alarm on Capitol Hill about the president's expanding foreign policy ambitions.

Democrats are forcing the vote after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month.

“Here we have one of the most successful attacks ever and they find a way to be against it. It’s pretty amazing. And it’s a shame," Trump said at a speech in Michigan Tuesday. He also hurled insults at several of the Republicans who advanced the legislation, calling Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky a “stone cold loser” and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine “disasters.”

Trump's latest comments followed earlier phone calls with the senators, which they described as terse. The president's fury underscored how the war powers vote has taken on new political significance as Trump also threatens military action to accomplish his goal of possessing Greenland.

The legislation, even if passed by the Senate, has virtually no chance of becoming law because it would eventually need to be signed by Trump himself. But it represented both a test of GOP loyalty to the president and a marker for how much leeway the Republican-controlled Senate is willing to give Trump to use the military abroad.

Republican Senate leaders are trying to defuse the conflict between their members and Trump as well as move on quickly to other business.

In a floor speech Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., vented his frustration as he questioned whether this war powers resolution should be prioritized under the chamber’s rules.

“We have no troops on the ground in Venezuela. We’re not currently conducting military operations there,” he said. “But Democrats are taking up this bill because their anti-Trump hysteria knows no bounds.”

By Wednesday evening, Republican leaders were moving to dismiss the measure under the argument that it is irrelevant to the current situation in Venezuela. That procedure will still receive a vote.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who helped advance the war powers resolution last week, has indicated he may change his position.

Hawley said that Trump's message during a phone call last week was that the legislation “really ties my hands." The senator said he had a follow-up phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that was “really positive.”

Hawley said that Rubio told him Monday "point blank, we’re not going to do ground troops.” The senator said he also received assurances that the Trump administration will follow constitutional requirements if it becomes necessary to deploy troops again to the South American country.

“We’re getting along very well with Venezuela,” Trump told reporters at a ceremony for the signing of an unrelated bill Wednesday.

Hawley's position left the vote margin for the resolution, which advanced 52-47 last week, razor thin.

However, Collins told reporters Wednesday she will still support the resolution. Murkowski and Paul have also indicated they won't switch.

That left Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, with the crucial vote. He declined repeatedly to discuss his position but said he was “giving it some thought.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has brought a series of war powers resolutions this year, said he wasn't surprised at Trump's reaction to senators asserting their ability to put a check on the president.

“They're furious at the notion that Congress wants to be Congress,” he said. “But I think people who ran for the Senate, they want to be U.S. senators and they don't want to just vote their own irrelevance.”

Under the Constitution, Congress alone has the ability to declare war. But U.S. presidents have long stretched their powers to use the might of the U.S. military around the globe.

Ohio State University professor Peter Mansoor, a military historian and retired U.S. Army colonel with multiple combat tours, said that trend since World War II allows Congress to shirk responsibility for war and put all the risk on the president.

In the post-Vietnam War era, lawmakers tried to take back some of their authority over wartime powers with the War Powers Resolution of 1973. It allows lawmakers to hold votes on resolutions to restrict a president from using military force in specific conflicts without congressional approval.

“Politicians tend to like to evade responsibility for anything -- but then this gets you into forever wars,” Mansoor said.

Trump has used a series of legal arguments for his campaign against Maduro.

As he built up a naval force in the Caribbean and destroyed vessels that were allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, the Trump administration tapped wartime powers under the global war on terror by designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

The administration has claimed the capture of Maduro himself was actually a law enforcement operation, essentially to extradite the Venezuelan president to stand trial for charges in the U.S. that were filed in 2020.

In a classified briefing Tuesday, senators reviewed the Trump administration's still undisclosed legal opinion for using the military for the operation. It was described as a lengthy document.

But lawmakers, including a significant number of Republicans, have been alarmed by Trump's recent foreign policy talk. In recent weeks, he has pledged that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela for years to come, threatened military action to take possession of Greenland and told Iranians protesting their government that “ help is on its way.”

Senior Republicans have tried to massage the relationship between Trump and Denmark, a NATO ally that holds Greenland as a semi-autonomous territory. But Danish officials emerged from a meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Rubio Wednesday saying a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remains.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump's recent aggression amounted to a “dangerous drift towards endless war.”

More than half of U.S. adults believe President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

House Democrats have also filed a similar war powers resolution and can force a vote on it as soon as next week.

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., talks with reporters outside the Senate chamber during a vote at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks with reporters at the Senate Subway on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)