Kolumbien

On 17 September, fighters from Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), fired rockets from the back of a truck into a military base in Puerto Jordán in eastern Colombia. It was also a devastating blow to leftist President Gustavo Petro’s ambitious “Total Peace” plan, which aimed at moving away from failed military solutions to decades of conflict and at establishing a dialogue with criminal armed groups in return for their disarmament.

Negotiators of Colombia’s government suspended peace talks with guerrilla group ELN in response to an attack that killed two soldiers and injured 25. In a statement, the negotiators said that the peace talks’ “viability is severely damaged, and their continuity can only be recovered with an unequivocal manifestation of the ELN’s will for peace.”

Colombia, host nation for this year's United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference, was the deadliest country for environmentalists and land rights defenders in 2023, with a record 79 killed, according to UK advocacy group Global Witness.

Colombia’s armed forces have resumed military operations against the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) after a ceasefire deal expired, the defense minister said Monday. … After the ceasefire ended, the ELN’s peace delegation accused the Colombian government of non-compliance with agreements signed during negotiations since the end of 2022. 

Colombia's government has ended a ceasefire with some factions of the EMC rebels, led by commander Ivan Mordisco, who reject peace talks, the defense ministry said on Tuesday. The Estado Mayor Central (EMC) was formed by dissident former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters who themselves reject a 2016 peace deal with the state.

Chiquita must compensate victims of paramilitary organization AUC, which received financial support of the banana corporation in Colombia, a US court ruled. 

Negotiators of Colombia’s government and ELN guerrillas successfully ended talks on the first of six points on the peace talks agenda. … The partial agreement is a major advance for the talks that were initiated by the ELN and former President Juan Manuel Santos in 2017.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is weighing whether to fully suspend a ceasefire with the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) rebel group, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said on Tuesday, after two bombings attributed to the group in the southeastern province of Cauca. … The 3,500-strong EMC are rebels who rejected a landmark 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), previously the country's largest guerrilla organization.

Colombia’s longest-living rebel group ELN said Monday that they will resume kidnappings to sustain their guerrilla organization. In a statement, the rebels said the government failed to create a so-called “fund that would allow them to sustain their organization through third-party donations.

The founder and supreme commander of guerrilla group EMC has abandoned peace talks, according to the lead negotiator of Colombia’s government. In a statement, government negotiator Camilo Gonzalez said that peace talks with the EMC were “frozen” and that the guerrillas’ top commander, “Ivan Mordisco,” was “out.”