Colombian Special Forces QRF [quick reaction force] ready to support units during military operations against ELN (Source: author collection)

Back to the Future: Colombia and the ELN

By Julian Díaz Avila

Though a partially successful peace agreement was reached in 2016 between the Colombian government and the country’s main insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), a significant challenge continues to be posed by a hitherto secondary but now dominant insurgency, the National Liberation Army or ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional).(1) Hence a strategy for dealing with ELN remains the most pressin...