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.
A ceasefire between the government and ELN expired at the end last month and has not been renewed, but the rebel group remains involved in peace talks aimed at ending more than five decades of conflict.
The army said on Tuesday that the group had fired home-made rockets from a lorry parked near the base in Puerto Jordan, a small town in Arauca province.
The ELN, founded in the early 1960s by trade union leaders and university students inspired by the Cuban revolution, has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Colombia and Venezuela and finances itself through drug trafficking and illegal goldmines.
Recently, the ELN has been spreading into rural areas abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the largest rebel group, which made a peace deal with Colombia's government in 2016.
After being elected two years ago, Mr Petro quickly launched talks with the ELN and several smaller armed groups under a policy known as total peace.
The negotiations were mainly hosted by Cuba, which the US government used as one of its excuses for the inclusion of Havana on its arbitrary and unilateral State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
Talks with the ELN eventually foundered as the group continued to conduct kidnappings and tax civilians in areas under its control.
The ELN has also expressed frustration with a recent government effort to start separate peace negotiations with one of its splinter groups in south-west Colombia.
Since the end of its ceasefire, the group has stepped up attacks on military targets and oil pipelines in Arauca.
In a message published on the X social media platform, the Defence Ministry vowed to act with “firmness and resolve to restore security and stability” to the province.
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