ELN

ELN

The National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) is the last remaining guerrilla group in Colombia. The organization currently has a national reach and the capacity to expand into areas previously contolled by the FARC, especially in places with strong links to drug trafficking. However, in 2014, the ELN started preliminary peace talks with the national government, which ended in October 2016 with the initiation of formal negotiations.

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DESPITE PEACE TALKS, COLOMBIA’S ELN GUERRILLAS CONTINUE EXPANSION

When Latin America’s oldest insurgency, the FARC, officially becomes a political party, their cousins in the ELN will assume the status of Colombia’s most powerful guerrilla army. But... READ FULL ARTICLE

ELN STRUCTURE

To understand the ELN, it is important to observe the way the rebels’ military and political command units are structured. This structure has emerged from the results of their congresses, where strategic plans and the ideological and political platform are also defined. The graphic below illustrates the ELN’s main leadership structures and the relationships between them. READ ELN PROFILE

Explore Colombia Peace & Conflict

CRIMINAL ACTORS

MAFIA groups are the product of over three decades of criminal evolution, ex-fighters from the demobilized FARC that have criminalized to form the Ex-FARC Mafia, and the country’s last remaining insurgent threat, the ELN.

CRIMINAL ECONOMIES

Colombia is producing more cocaine than ever before, but drug trafficking is no longer the only source of income in the underworld. Broad portfolios include illegal mining, extortion, microtrafficking and more. GO TO PAGE

STATE RESPONSES

The current government has designed different strategies and instruments that aim to combat new iterations of crime and strengthen state presence in areas historically controlled by the guerrillas. GO TO PAGE

DYNAMICS OF VIOLENCE

With the implementation of the peace agreement with the FARC, criminal actors are trying to control illegal economies, increasing the risk of repeating cycles of violence and human rights violations. GO TO PAGE

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