Reuters

The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, September 18, 2024, p. 25

Bogotá. An explosive attack by the National Liberation Army (ELN) against a military patrol in northeastern Colombia practically The dialogue between the government and the rebel group has ended, President Gustavo Petro announced yesterday. The attack, the most serious since a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN ended in early August, left two soldiers dead and 27 wounded in a rural area of ​​the municipality of Arauquita, in the department of Arauca, on the border with Venezuela. A dump truck loaded with explosives that injured 27 young people and killed two, placed by the guerrilla, with whom we were talking about peace (…) is practically an action that closes a peace process with bloodthe president said at an event at the presidential headquarters. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, reestablished negotiations with the ELN at the end of 2022 with the intention of ending a six-decade conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead. The process has been in crisis for months due to the government’s decision to initiate peace talks with an armed front that broke away from the ELN and has a presence in the southwest of the country.