Military Periscope :: National Liberation Army (ELN)

National Liberation Army (ELN)

Group Name:

Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN).

Location/Area of Operation:

The ELN operates mostly in the rural and mountainous areas of north, northeast and southwest Colombia, as well as in Venezuelan border regions. Activity and training camps have also been discovered in the northern border areas of Ecuador.

Stated Purpose:

The ELN is a Marxist revolutionary group that opposes U.S. intervention in Colombia and claims to represent the rural poor.

Strength:

The ELN has some 3,000 armed militants and an unknown number of active supporters.

External Aid and Links:

Cuba provides some political support and medical care to the ELN. Venezuela has been accused of passively supporting the group by allowing the use of its territory as an ELN sanctuary. Both Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have expressed revolutionary goals similar to those of the ELN and are outspoken critics of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. This may account for the lack of Venezuelan action against the ELN. The ELN had a falling out with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2006, but in mid-2008 began to reach out to FARC.

Activities:

The ELN has a limited military capability and is mainly involved in low-intensity guerrilla attacks. ELN militants frequently assault energy infrastructure, including oil pipelines and the power grid. Its activities also include kidnappings, hijackings, bombings, drug trafficking and extortion. The ELN has abducted numerous foreign workers, whose ransoms provide an important source of revenue. During some years, such abductions have totaled in the hundreds. Kickbacks from illegal narcotics sales also provide revenue.

The Colombian government has demanded the ELN halt all kidnappings as a precondition to formal peace talks. However, the ELN rejected those demands in April 2005. "Since the ELN has refused, and will continue refusing, to get involved in drug-trafficking, it cannot halt kidnappings at this time," said leader Antonio Garcia. Peace talks do take place intermittently.

Subsequently, the organization has become increasingly involved in drug trafficking. In August 2007 the leadership discussed the possibility of abandoning kidnapping as a method of funding. There is no evidence this has occurred.

Since 2005, the ELN seems to be growing more active in Venezuela.The ELN has dramatically increased its use of land mines to defend against offensives staged by the military. The larger FARC has done likewise. According to Colombia’s Mine Observatory statistics, those killed or wounded by mines in Colombia rose from 287 in 2001 to a peak of 1,167 in 2006. In 2007, there were 895 casualties from mines. Over one-third of these reported casualties were civilians.

Overview:

Urban devotees of Cuban revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara founded the ELN in 1963. The group espouses an anti-U.S. and anti-capitalist ideology. The ELN has a social-revolutionary program similar to Colombia's other major leftist insurgent group, the FARC. Both oppose U.S. policies in Colombia and claim to represent the working class against Colombia's elite.

Right-wing paramilitary groups in recent years have damaged the ELN's size, support base and capacity. The Colombian military’s operations against the ELN have also had a significant negative impact. Between August 2002 and March 2003, according to the Defense Ministry, some 3,200 FARC and ELN militants were captured, 1,200 killed and 1,000 deserted or surrendered.

The ELN began peace talks with the Colombian government in 1992; the negotiations proved unsuccessful. Further talks continued sporadically through 2001, until the Colombian government broke them off in August of that year. Colombia restarted peace negotiations with the ELN in 2004, with Mexico serving as a mediator, but made little progress.

Additional talks showed little progress. In December 2005, the ELN and the Colombian government began a new round of talks in Cuba. Observers included representatives from Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

During another round, which began in February of 2006, the government suspended its capture orders for two of the group’s senior leaders, Antonio Garcia and Ramiro Vargas, opting to treat them as political figures.

During talks held in April of 2006, both parties reiterated support for past agreements and agreed to continue the peace process.

Talks faltered in July 2007, in large part over the ELN’s operations. Bogota is seeking greater transparency regarding the ELN’s members and military capacity.

Talks held in August 2007 also ended without resolution.

In January 2008, Carlos Marin, an ELN leader adamantly opposed to peace talks with the government, was captured. Peace talks have proceeded very slowly since then and a round of formal negotiations is yet to be held.

Group Chronology:

1963

Students, radical Catholics and urban intellectuals inspired by the Cuban revolution founded the ELN.

1988

January-December: The ELN carried out approximately 50 bombings against the 500-mile Cano-Limon pipeline, causing extensive damage.

1990s

The ELN carried out numerous operations, including kidnappings, infrastructure attacks and armed attacks against military and law enforcement personnel. Notable events included:

In 1992, the ELN initiated peace talks, which were largely unsuccessful, with the Colombian government.

On May 31, 1995, seven ELN militants kidnapped a U.S. citizen and three Colombians at a Zaragoza gold mine. The Colombian army staged a rescue operation that left one hostage and two guerrillas dead.

In 1997, the U.S. State Dept. designated ELN as a foreign terrorist organization.

On July 22, 1998, a group calling itself the Popular Liberation Forces claimed responsibility for a series of 12 bombings in Medellin. The group said it was working with urban cells of the ELN.

On April 13, 1999, ELN rebels hijacked a Colombian Avianca airliner with 46 passengers and crew aboard.

2000

March 22: The Colombian government blamed the ELN for attacks on the national power grid that left the country without electricity for seven hours.

Sept. 17: The ELN was blamed for kidnapping 30 to 35 people at three separate road blocks near Cali. In November, the ELN released all the hostages as part of a cease-fire agreement with the Colombian government.

The ELN bombed the Cano-Limon pipeline at least 166 times in the course of the year.

2002

January: Representatives from the ELN, United Nations and the Colombian government began peace talks in Havana, Cuba. The government initially offered the ELN a 1,860 square-mile demilitarized zone in northern Colombia as a sanctuary.

June: After several months of negotiating, the Havana peace talks collapsed.

2003

January: The U.S. dispatched 60 special operations personnel to aid in security operations along the Cano-Limon pipeline in Arauca state, a favorite target of the ELN. They joined 10 special operations troops previously deployed to the region.

April 27: ELN rebels executed a young teacher in Medellin. She was kidnapped the week before and her father was told that she would be executed if he did not kill a right-wing paramilitary living in the neighboring town of Cocorna. The father refused, and the guerrillas killed the teacher.

Nov. 21: The ELN said it would release two of seven foreigners who were abducted in September in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Colombia.

2004

June: Peace talks were restarted between Bogota and the ELN under the auspices of the Mexican government.

August: Colombia's government sent a cease-fire proposition to the ELN after the rebel group requested to negotiate through a Mexican mediator.

Nov. 17: ELN members killed nine police officers and injured three in an ambush in the northwest Choco province. About 100 members of the Cimarron front participated in the attack on the police patrol.

Dec. 11: Colombian troops captured Ramiro Velez, allegedly a member of the ELN's national directorate and the director of all ELN terrorist activity in southwest Colombia. Velez is blamed for the 1999 abduction of 180 worshippers from a Catholic church in Cali.

2005

April 4: The ELN announced it would not stop kidnappings, rejecting one of Bogota's preconditions for peace talks.

July 14: Government troops clashed with ELN fighters in the southwest Valle province, leaving at least 15 ELN members dead. The death toll was the largest for the ELN in more than three years.

Sept. 12: Bogota agreed to release ELN leader Francisco Galan from prison for three months to allow him to facilitate peace negotiations with the government. Galan had been imprisoned since 1992.

December: Bogota began exploratory talks as a precursor with the ELN in Havana, Cuba.

2006

March 23: The ELN handed over a Colombian soldier it had kidnapped on February 25 to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The group claimed the release was a sign of its willingness to negotiate.

April 25: ELN and government representatives began a new round of talks. After three days, they agreed to continue with the peace process.

June: Accusing the ELN of "attacks that we only expected from the enemy," the FARC publicly quarreled with the ELN, vowing to "punish those responsible."

October: Another round of formal talks was fruitless.

November: Four civilians were kidnapped by suspected ELN militants and one was subsequently killed. Around 600 civilians were also displaced by fighting between FARC and the ELN.

2007

January: Seventy families were displaced by battles between FARC and ELN.

March 21: Six civilians were wounded in a land-mine attack blamed on the ELN.

June: Four Colombian soldiers were killed and four more wounded after an ELN ambush in the village of Anori. Seven ELN members were killed; a weapons cache, including antipersonnel mines, was recovered.

July 25: Another round of peace talks ended without progress. Both sides agreed to resume negotiations in August.

August 30: A round of peace talks in Havana, Cuba, ended without agreement.

September: ELN leaders met with Venezuelan and Colombian officials in Caracas, Venezuela. Following the September meeting, ELN and Colombian leaders promised to renew peace talks in December 2007. Those talks did not take place.

2008

January: A Red Cross vehicle set off an ELN mine in La Llanadas municipality. The vehicle was damaged, but there were no casualties.

Jan. 7: Carlos Marin, alias "Pablito," was captured by the Colombian military. Pablito is adamantly opposed to peace talks with the government and led ELN's radical wing against such negotiations.

February: The ELN began restricting access to areas under its control in Samaniego in Narino province by laying antipersonnel mines at night and removing them during the day. When the military entered in the area, the rebels stopped removing the mines during the day.

March: Three civilians died and 11 others were injured by ELN mines during this month, according to the Colombian Ministry of Defense. Five government deminers were also wounded clearing the mines.

April 3: A meeting took place between ELN spokesman Francisco Galan and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Galan said ELN would return to the negotiating table. However, the group released a statement saying it did not share Galan's views.

May 26: ELN published a letter on its Web site seeking cooperation with the FARC.

July 14: The Colombian military rescued five ELN hostages in the northwestern province of Antioquia, killing at least five guerrillas.

December: A U.S. federal grand jury indicted ELN leader Pablito for two separate hostage incidents involving U.S. citizens in 1999 and 2003.

December: According to a Defense Ministry report, 383 ELN guerillas surrendered to the government in 2008.

Dec. 5: Nine policemen were killed in an ELN ambush in Arauca province.

Last Updated:

December 2008