Editor's Note: As part of an ongoing, if somewhat ad hoc, series of blog entries I'm introducing the series, "Only in Colombia," in which I will discuss peculiar news items coming out of Colombia.

Colombian Daily the EFE news agency reports that a group of guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN) drugged their superiors with a jungle plant known as "Tunda" or "Dormidera" as part of their escape.

The plan was apparently launched by a group of four female guerrillas led by alias "Pilar." But by the time Pilar's plan was put into action another 11 guerrillas took off while the group's commanders were in a deep, induced sleep from the drug. The fleeing rebels rubbed the plant's leaves on the bed of the commanders.

"That herb grows naturally in the jungle and we spread it on the place where the commanders sleep to leave them in a deep sleep for close to eight hours, giving us good head start," said Pilar. If caught, the ELN could have sentenced them to death through their system of so-called "revolutionary justice."

Interestingly, the ELN escapees were camped in a municipality in Nariño department (or state) known as Barbacoas, which is the same place where as many as 27 indigenous Awá were recently massacred, reportedly by FARC guerrillas. I'm curious about whether the ELN escapees have any knowledge of the massacre.

The escaped rebels turned themselves into an Army battalion, which they met after hiking through the dense jungle for two days.

In recent months, accounts of deserting guerrillas – mainly from the FARC – have become more common. The most grisly was certainly the escape of Pedro Montoya, who killed his commander Iván Ríos, a member of the FARC's ruling secretariat. Montoya severed the hands of his slain leader as proof of death.