Assault on navy base blamed on ELN rebels, who have been engaged in peace talks till ceasefire settlement resulted in August.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has warned that an assault on a navy base in jap Colombia “virtually closes” peace talks.
Petro late on Tuesday blamed the leftist Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN) insurgent group for the assault in Puerto Jordan, within the northeastern Arauca province, earlier within the day, which killed two troopers and injured a minimum of 21.
“That is an assault that virtually closes a peace course of, with blood,” he mentioned throughout a ceremony in Bogota.
The ELN fired rockets from a cargo truck loaded with explosives in what the navy referred to as essentially the most severe assault since a bilateral ceasefire between the federal government and the insurgent group resulted in August.
Six a long time of battle
The ELN, which has an estimated 6,000 fighters, is the most important of the armed teams energetic in Colombia’s six-decade battle, which has left greater than 450,000 useless.
The federal government sealed a peace settlement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016.
Petro, the nation’s first left-wing president, restarted peace talks with the ELN on the finish of 2022 as a part of his efforts to ship “complete peace”.
Nevertheless, the talks have been in disaster for months because the group continued to conduct kidnappings and tax civilians in areas beneath its management.
The ELN has additionally expressed frustration that the federal government has opened separate talks with a splinter ELN unit within the southwest of the nation.
In August, Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez mentioned the navy would resume operations towards ELN after the ceasefire ran out.
The ELN accuses the federal government of failing to fulfill the phrases of agreements signed throughout earlier rounds of peace talks.
The group can be demanding that the federal government take away it from its checklist of organised armed teams.