SOCIAL STUDIES 10 GRADE: Armed Groups In Colombia, ELN

ELN

National Liberation Army (Spanish: Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) is a revolutionary, Marxist, insurgent guerrilla group that has been operating in several regions of Colombia since 1964.

The ELN is less known than the largest Colombian rebel group, the FARC, is smaller, estimated at between 3,500 to 5,000 guerrillas.

Unlike the FARC, which has a strongly orthodox Marxist background, the ELN, at least at the beginning, was strongly influenced by the liberation theology.

The US State Department has listed the ELN as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, ostensibly because of its notorious reputation for ransom kidnappings and armed attacks on Colombia's infrastructure. In April 2004, the European Union added the ELN to its list of terrorist organizations for those actions and its breaches of humanitarian law.[1]

The ELN has also occasionally operated with the FARC-EP and it has also targeted civilians, according to a February 2005 report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: "During 2004, the FARC-EP and the ELN carried out a series of attacks against the civilian population, including several massacres of civilians and kidnappings by the FARC-EP. There were occasional joint actions by the FARC-EP and the ELN."[2]
Some of the ELN's main practices include the proliferation of ground mines, which have sometimes hurt or killed civilians.

In mid-2006, mutual rivalries between local FARC and ELN forces escalated into hostilities in Arauca, along the border with Venezuela. According to the BBC, "the FARC have for some years moved to take over ELN territory near the Venezuelan border, and the smaller rebel army reacted by killing several FARC militants". A statement posted on FARC's homepage accused the ELN of "attacks that we only expected from the enemy". [3]

The ELN's main source of income is the levying of taxes from businesses and middle class civilians in its areas of operation. To enforce these taxes, they frequently take civilians captive to use as leverage. While the ELN uses the terms "war taxes" and "retentions" for these actions, critics insist they constitute "extortion" and "kidnapping".[4]