![]() During this time the paramilitary AUC concentrated its efforts on attacking areas controlled by the ELN in the Magdalena Medio region, including villages like Micoahumado, located in the Serranía de San Lucas mountain range. While peace talks developed in a demilitarised zone in El Caguán in the south of the country, armed conflict intensified in the north. The greatest escalation of violence in Colombia coincided with negotiations between the government and the FARC from 1999–2002. The ELN had an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 members at the height of the movement in the 1990s in 2015 it is estimated to have 1,500 to 2,000 members. The group has included several priests and religious actors, such as General Commander Manuel Pérez (also known as El Cura Pérez – “Pérez the Priest”), and Camilo Torres, who participated in socialist movements before joining the ELN in 1965. It had ideological ties with Cuba, as well as Christian roots inspired by liberation theology and notions of social justice. After two decades of low intensity conflict, the violence escalated in the 1980s and reached its peak in the late 1990s.Īs a Marxist pro-Cuban group, the ELN was inspired by tactics used by guerrillas led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s in the Sierra Maestra mountain range of Cuba. The other main conflict parties include the Colombian Army and police forces, and paramilitary groups under the umbrella of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). Contemporary armed conflict in Colombia began in the 1960s with the emergence of two major guerrilla groups – the ELN and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
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