Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Attack on Colombian military base could end country's peace process, Petro says
Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks after signing a law banning bullfighting, in La Plaza Santa Maria, Bogota, Colombia, on July 22, 2024

AN ATTACK on a military base in eastern Colombia that left two soldiers dead has probably killed off peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday night.

At a ceremony where he named a new judge to one of Colombia’s highest courts, Mr Petro said: “This is an attack that practically closes a peace process, with blood.”

He was speaking after the military blamed the ELN for the attack and said that, in addition to the two fatalities, at least 21 soldiers had been injured.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
FLAGGING POWER OF THE WEST: Nigerian and US soldiers raise their respective flags at a US military base in the country in 2018; last year, at the demand of the new transitional government of General Abdurahmane Tchiani, all US troops left. Photo: Africom
Features / 7 August 2025
7 August 2025

ROGER McKENZIE reports on the west African country, under its new anti-imperialist government, taking up the case for compensation for colonial-era massacres

Relatives of Palestinian child Salem Hussein, 12, killed in an Israeli army bombardment of Gaza, mourn beside his body at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 22, 2025
North Africa / 24 July 2025
24 July 2025

For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE

Sudanese displaced families take shelter in a school after being evacuated by the Sudanese army from areas once controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Omdurman, Sudan, March 23, 2025
Northeast Africa / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025