Conflict updates in Colombia involve ELN attacks, government responses, and ongoing ceasefire talks
In March, a Colombian soldier sustained injuries during an attack by the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, along the Catatumbo border region near Venezuela. By Tuesday, military sources reported that the toll of soldiers who had died had risen to ten. The army memorialized the fallen, explaining on Twitter that Brayan Andrés Guerrero López lost his life after being wounded on March 29, and expressing sorrow for the loss to his family and comrades.
Another post on the same platform conveyed sympathy to the family of the 19-year-old soldier who remained in the Intensive Care Unit at the Military Hospital in Bogotá. The message underscored the human impact of the violence on service members and their households, highlighting the ongoing strain on military personnel stationed in challenging border zones.
The ELN attack targeted a unit of the Special Energy and Road Battalion No. 10, situated in the hamlet of Guamalito within the El Carmen municipality of Norte de Santander. The assault involved explosives and rifle fire and drew condemnation from multiple sectors of the government, as well as an unusually broad international response, with the United States among those voicing concern. The strike left eight soldiers injured and prompted President Gustavo Petro to call upon the government’s negotiating delegation to return to the table with the ELN for consultations amid ongoing peace efforts.
Earlier in the month, Eliécer Chamorro, who is known by the nickname Antonio García and is considered a top commander within the ELN, asserted publicly that the guerrilla movement reserves the right to attack Colombian state security forces as long as no bilateral ceasefire has been agreed in the ongoing talks with the government. This statement reflected the stalled nature of the ceasefire discussions and signaled the persistence of hostilities while negotiations continue.
Earlier still, the ELN Central Command stated that the Colombian government sought to impose conditions on issues that could not be resolved at the negotiating table, including a ceasefire. The group claimed that the government had attempted to press for a multilateral ceasefire through media channels before an agreement at the dialogue table had been reached in the year’s early rounds. The ELN framed the situation as a coercive tactic, arguing that unilateral cessation proposals were not part of the dialogue framework.
President Petro announced a bilateral truce with five armed groups on December 31, but the ELN later withdrew from that commitment, arguing that it was not formally decided in the dialogue table between the government and the guerrilla faction. The cessation efforts did not culminate in a ceasefire in the second round of talks held in Mexico last month, despite calls from the president for a renewed push toward a sustained agreement.
High Commissioner for Peace Danilo Rueda indicated that the government is pursuing an overarching framework designed to achieve a national bilateral agreement with the possibility of extension. He described this approach as a step beyond recent arrangements with the ELN in other contexts and emphasized the need to move forward with negotiations. In the wake of the El Carmen attack, officials said there was a push to accelerate the ceasefire process and to approach the next Havana meeting with a stronger prospect of reaching a binding ceasefire agreement in the coming weeks.