Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group called for a “national accord” to overcome political conflicts in the South American nation, as it faces the prospect of attacks from the governments of both Colombia and the United States.
In a statement published Monday on its X account, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, said that after elections in Colombia this year, the group would like to work with the nation’s new government to design agreements aimed at defeating poverty, protecting ecosystems and “overcoming” the drug trade in rural areas.
The statement follows reports that the governments of Colombia and the United States are looking for ways to conduct joint operations against the ELN, a group that Colombian President Gustavo Petro has described as “drug traffickers dressed up as guerrilla fighters.”
Pressure on ELN has increased since early this month when the United States captured Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro in a pre-dawn raid and flew him to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges. The indictment against Maduro in the New York case accuses Maduro of providing protection to the ELN in Venezuelan territory and working with the group to traffic cocaine.
Since the raid, officials in Colombia are taking steps to weaken the group's position in Venezuela.
Last week Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that President Petro and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the ELN and its role in drug trafficking during a phone call that decreased tensions between the two leaders.
According to Benedetti, the presidents discussed possible joint operations against the ELN. In an interview with Colombian radio station Blu, Bendetti said that “the issue (with the ELN) is that they need to be attacked when they retreat” into camps in Venezuela.
Petro said in a message posted Monday on X that the ELN has to give up drug trafficking and recruiting minors if it wants peace talks to resume. The president also called on the rebel group to to stop using camps in Venezuela, or face “joint actions” that also involve Venezuela's government.
The Colombian government suspended peace talks with the ELN last year, after the group staged an offensive in the northeastern Catatumbo region that forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes.
The ELN was founded in the 1960s by students and union leaders inspired by the Cuban revolution. It currently has around 5,000 fighters operating in Colombia and Venezuela.
