Drone Warfare Comes to Latin America
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- Dilan Camilo Erazo Yela, a 10-year-old Colombian boy, was killed in July 2024 in El Plateado when a dissident FARC drone dropped an explosive on the soccer field where he and friends played — the first known Colombian killed by a weaponized drone, according to ACLED; 12 others were injured in the strike, including an 11-year-old with a chest wound.
- ACLED recorded a dramatic escalation of drone attacks in Colombia — 1 in 2023, 38 in 2024, 149 in 2025, and 137 through July 17 of this year — with deadly strikes including 13 police officers killed when a drone attacked their helicopter in Antioquia in August 2025.
- Ukraine has become a "proving ground" for drone warfare, with drones accounting for 69% of attacks on Russian forces as of mid-2025; more than 7,000 Colombian mercenaries — many retired military personnel — have fought there since 2022, and some are subsequently recruited by Mexican cartels, passing on drone expertise.
- Mexican cartels have weaponized commercial-grade drones since at least 2015, using them both to smuggle narcotics into the U.S. and to wage territorial wars; ACLED logged 37 drone-related deaths in Mexico in 2024 and 40 in 2025, with analysts noting cartels use drones to terrorize families into displacement.
- Comando Vermelho (CV) members used drones to drop explosives on police and civilians during October 2025 raids on two Rio de Janeiro favelas, producing 121 deaths in a single incident — the deadliest drone attack logged anywhere in Latin America, per ACLED.
- Colombia's government announced a $1.68 billion anti-drone project in January featuring radar and signal-jamming systems, but analyst Tiziano Breda warns fiber-optic drones used by the ELN are already rendering some jamming technology obsolete.
- President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office Aug. 7, has vowed on the campaign trail to strengthen Colombia's armed forces through expanded use of drones and artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: The proliferation cycle is now self-sustaining: Colombian mercenaries fight in Ukraine, return home, and train criminal groups, while Mexican and Brazilian cartels share drone tactics across borders — a pipeline analysts say is outpacing governments spending billions on countermeasures that fiber-optic drones are already bypassing.
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