Colombia to go to war against guerrillas after 100+ deaths
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Colombia deploys 5,000 troops as President Petro shifts from diplomacy to military action against guerrilla violence that has killed over 100 and displaced 11,000.
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President Gustavo Petro announces to the country the suspension of peace negotiations with the ELN, on January 21, 2025. (Colombian Presidency/ Pool photo)
Amid the dangerous security developments that have enveloped three different Colombian departments, Colombia has now vowed to go to "war" against guerrilla factions.
After more than 100 people were killed in the recent wave of violence which has threatened the country's peace process, President Gustavo Petro has now signaled a tougher approach to the crisis.
Petro issued a warning on Monday to the leaders of the ELN (National Liberation Army), which has launched assaults on FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), which supposedly disarmed in 2016. Violence between the two groups has now spread from the Amazon jungle to the border with Venezuela, displacing 11,000 people.
Until now, Petro had taken up a strategy of negotiation and engagement with the armed groups, hoping to achieve stability through diplomacy. However, he is now saying that the ELN had "chosen the path of war, and war they shall have."
Around 5,000 troops have so far been sent to the border area to contain the violence, which is some of the worst Colombia has seen in years, as the ELN was reported by the Colombian ombudsman's office to be going "house to house", killing people suspected of ties to dissident units of FARC.
Despite some public opposition, Petro launched negotiations with the various hardline armed groups that still control parts of Colombia after being elected in 2022.
Some critics of Petro's policy of diplomacy say that it encouraged some of the groups that secure their funding through illicit drug trafficking or other forms of illegal activity, allowing their power to grow.
Colombia's 2016 peace deal was hailed as a turning point in the six-decade-long conflict between state security forces, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug gangs. The civil conflict in Colombia has resulted in approximately 220,000 deaths, 25,000 people missing, and 5.7 million displaced since 1964 when FARC and the ELN were established, and dissident factions continue to be in control of territory in the country.
The FARC was comprised of militant communists and peasant self-defense groups, whereas the ELN's ranks were primarily made up of students, Catholic radicals, and left-wing intellectuals aspiring to replicate Fidel Castro's revolution.
Both opposed the privatization of natural resources and asserted that they represented the rural poor against Colombia's wealthy elite.
