(Bogotá) The Colombian army killed six ELN guerrilla fighters in a region of northeastern Colombia bordering Venezuela, weeks before the start of a bilateral ceasefire planned for the August 3, the Minister of Defense said on Tuesday.
There are “six dead among the members of this organization, four men and two women” and “the operations are continuing” in the department of Arauca (east), Ivan Velasquez told the press.
This is a severe blow against the National Liberation Army (ELN, Guevarist), with which the government has been holding peace talks since November.
The two parties signed an agreement on June 9 in Havana, providing for a ceasefire from August 3 and for a period of six months.
If respected, it will be the longest truce since the creation of this far-left guerrilla in 1964. The UN and the international community have welcomed this unprecedented agreement.
The ELN has always been reluctant to lay down its arms and displays its distrust of successive Colombian governments, including the current government of Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the country’s history elected in the summer of 2022.
On Tuesday, ELN commander Antonio Garcia claimed on Twitter that elite army commandos were deployed in guerrilla stronghold regions, such as Arauca, denouncing “a far-right plan with the armed forces” and “in coordination with paramilitary groups”.
“We know that they will not obey orders to stop military and intelligence actions […] They are already located in specific territories and ready to act militarily against the ELN, the targets to be attacked are defined”, assured Mr. Garcia.
Under the leadership of Gustavo Petro, the Colombian government has been negotiating since the end of 2022 with the ELN, the last guerrilla formed as such still active in Colombia. The talks began in November in Caracas, before continuing in March in Mexico City.
But the death of ten Colombian soldiers at the end of March in an ELN ambush had raised doubts about the continuation of the negotiations. They finally resumed for a third cycle at the beginning of May in Havana.
The ELN, a guerrilla created under the inspiration of the Cuban revolution, had 5,850 fighters in 2022, according to the authorities.
Bloodied by half a century of armed conflict, Colombia has attempted numerous peace negotiations with armed groups.
In 2016, a historic agreement, negotiated in Havana, led to the disarmament of the powerful Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and its transformation into a political party.
In addition to the ELN, President Petro has been trying to negotiate for several months with dissidents from the ex-FARC, paramilitary groups and criminal groups.