The National Liberation Army (Spanish: Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) is an armed group involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict,[6] which has existed in Colombia since 1964. The ELN advocate a composite communist ideology of Marxism and liberation theology. In 2013, it was estimated that the ELN forces consisted of between 1,380 and 3,000 guerrillas.[3][4][5] According to former ELN national directorate member Felipe Torres, one fifth of ELN supporters have taken up arms.[7] The ELN has been classified as a terrorist organization by the governments of Colombia, Peru, United States,[8] Canada[9] and the European Union.
Nowadays the ELN made a series of acts that passed the line of patience, they have made 5 acts which have put them in the sights of the government,
these are :
The murder of Aulio Isarama Forastero at the hands of the ELN was the first violation of the bilateral ceasefire. The facts were presented on October 25 in a municipality of Alto Baudó in Chocó. The indigenous governor was approached by five armed men who took him away with deception and, apparently, later accused him of "having a link with military intelligence." Because of these events, the guerrillas acknowledged their responsibility and asked for forgiveness "for this painful case to their relatives and close friends".
After the assassination of the leader Aulio Isarama, there was a massive displacement in the Chocó, which was little talked about by the media. 1,142 people had to leave the area. "Given the widespread fear and threats received by the ELN, families have gradually moved on different dates and as a measure of protection to different municipalities which do not have available shelter," said the head of the negotiating team at the time. of the Government, Juan Camilo Restrepo, after the parties met with representatives of the community in Quito.
Although the absence of attacks on oil infrastructure and the pause of confrontations with state forces marked the course of the truce, once the actions became more frequent. In fact, an attack on the pipeline in Cubará (Boyacá) began to mark the violent escalation in which the guerrillas submerged since January 10. The reason? That same day two other detonations were reported in the villages of La Granada and Miramar in Saravena, Arauca, where two days later they kidnapped a worker from Ecopetrol.
At the beginning of December, a SEMANA journalist managed to reach the Nariño municipality where the ELN murdered 13 people in a state of complete defenselessness. The guerrillas issued a statement in which they claimed that it had been a fight with dissidents of the Farc. However, the evidence and the testimonies of the relatives of the victims said otherwise. While the leaders of the dissidents were at the scene, the ELN men fired indiscriminately at a place where there were civilians, including children and the elderly. The proof is that at the time of the massacre a party was being held with the whole community.
At 6:40 on Saturday morning, when the police were doing their routine training at the San José station in Barranquilla, the cargo exploded. Apparently, a suspect detonated the explosives through a remote control device. The balance of the attack was painful: 5 uniformed were killed and 43 more were injured.
On the same day, the situation was repeated in a CAI in Santa Rosa, south of Bolívar. At 11:50 in the evening, there was another explosion that, this time, left 2 police officers dead. A third attack was perpetrated in the CAI of the Soledad 2000 sector, in the metropolitan area of Barranquilla, at 4:30 am on Sunday. That attack did not leave dead but wounded 5, including two civilians.
