BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group announced Sunday a unilateral ceasefire that will last until Jan. 3, the first since the previous ceasefire broke down in August.
In a statement on X, the National Liberation Army said it will halt attacks on the military as the country celebrates Christmas and New Year.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro shared the ceasefire announcement on his X account, saying that “the end of the war is the country’s goal for 2025.”
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The group, known in Spanish as the ELN, was founded in the 1960s by university students, priests and labor leaders, inspired by the Cuban revolution.
According to Defense Ministry estimates, the country currently has 6,000 fighters in Colombia and Venezuela, and it finances itself through illegal mining, extortion and drug trafficking.
The ELN has increased its influence in some rural areas of Colombia by stepping into a power vacuum left by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia after that group signed a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016.
Two years ago, the ELN itself began holding peace talks with the Petro government, resulting in a ceasefire that began in August last year.
But peace talks stalled over disagreements over when the ELN would stop kidnapping and taxing civilians. ELN commanders were also angered by the government’s decision to set up separate negotiations with an ELN offshoot in the south-west of the country.
The ceasefire was broken four months ago and the ELN has since increased its attacks on military targets and oil infrastructure along Colombia’s border with Venezuela.
The Petro government has attempted peace talks with several armed groups in the country’s countryside, under a strategy known as total peace. ELN commanders have criticized the Petro government for trying to strike deals with some of these groups rather than prosecute them.
