Ceasefire with ELN Starts Sunday
Via Reuters: Colombia’s ELN rebel commander orders ceasefire beginning Sunday
The commander of Colombia’s Marxist ELN rebels on Friday ordered his fighters to begin a ceasefire this weekend as the group struggles through complicated peace talks with the government aimed at ending five decades of war.
Nicolas Rodriguez, known by his war alias Gabino, told the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas to begin their part in a bilateral ceasefire agreement with President Juan Manuel Santos’ government starting on Sunday and running through mid-January.
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Founded by radical Roman Catholic priests in 1964, the ELN has sought peace with the government before but made little progress. This would be the first ceasefire with the ELN.
The ELN (National Liberation Army) is the last active rebel group in Colombia and is the last vestige of the various Marxist uprisings that started in the 1960s. While nothing is guaranteed, it does seem that the era of guerrilla war in Colombia is finally coming to a close.
No doubt, the political integration of the FARC into electoral politics with shape how well these talks go, since congressional elections will take place early next year.
I can’t figure out what ELN’s actual political ideology is or was. I know they claimed to favor establishment of a communist (which typically indicates a post-Leninist definition of state ownership of the means of production) and christian state.