Small Wars Journal

Colombia is Trying to End 50 Years of War, But One Rebel Group Won’t Stop its Attacks

Thu, 01/11/2018 - 6:00pm

Colombia is Trying to End 50 Years of War, But One Rebel Group Won’t Stop its Attacks by Wes Michael Tomaselli – Washington Post

The breakdown of a cease-fire with a left-wing rebel group is threatening President Juan Manuel Santos’s goal of delivering peace and an end to Latin America’s longest-running war before the end of his eight-year term this August.

After five decades of conflict between the Colombian state and various anti-government rebel groups, Santos brokered a peace agreement with the country’s main Marxist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — winning a Nobel Peace Prize in the process — but a deal with anotherrebel band, the National Liberation Army (ELN) remains elusive, and key elections are just months away.

The three-month cease-fire between the army and the ELN ended on Tuesday. Within hours, the rebels blew up the national oil pipeline near the border with Venezuela and threw a grenade at soldiers. In a separate attack near the frontier, a sniper killed a Colombian soldier. Colombia’s military attributed the attack to the ELN.

Santos responded shortly afterward by recalling his chief negotiator from Quito, Ecuador, where talks had been scheduled…

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