Page 276 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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National Liberation Army–Colombia———255

the current edition of its list of international terrorist ELN had ignored political work in favor of military
organizations. action; after the losses of the 1970s, however, low-
level organizers working independently in several
See also ERNESTO (CHE) GUEVARA; NATIONAL LIBERATION
areas chose to continue their efforts to gain political
ARMY–COLOMBIA
support among the peasants and urban poor. As the
Further Reading Colombian regime of the time was particularly repres-
sive and economic conditions were bad, they soon
Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. found support. By 1983, the ELN had regrouped and
New York: Grove, 1997. had enough recruits to once again begin guerrilla oper-
“Kidnapped Executive Slain by Bolivia Rebels.” New York ations. The new leadership was organized as a national
Times, December 6, 1990, A12.
“National Liberation Army (ELN) Bolivia.” Patterns council of nine members led by another ex-priest,
of Global Terrorism. U.S. Department of State Publi- Manuel Perez.
cation 10321, 1994. http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/ Between 1984 and 1986, the ELN enjoyed a brief
tgp/eln.htm. truce with the Colombian government, but bad faith on
both sides stalled negotiations. After breaking the
truce, the ELN began a new strategy—focusing its
NATIONAL LIBERATION attacks on the Colombian oil industry, one of the
ARMY–COLOMBIA country’s top revenue generators. Over the next several
years, the group attacked the country’s oil pipelines
thousands of times; the damage cost hundreds of
Founded in 1965, the National Liberation millions of dollars and forced the government to
Army–Colombia is a Marxist terrorist group that has deploy a significant percentage of its armed forces to
conducted a guerrilla war of almost 40 years against protect the pipes. The ELN also engaged in kidnapping
the Colombian government. for ransom; early targets were oil executives, but as
The leaders of the National Liberation Army— kidnapping has been adopted by other guerrilla groups
widely known by its Spanish acronym, ELN (Ejercito and ordinary criminals, almost anyone is now at risk.
de Liberacion Nacional)—were student activists Colombia has the world’s highest kidnapping rate.
inspired by the success of the 1959 Cuban revolution. The ELN is believed to receive millions of dollars
Most important among them was Fabio Vasquez, in extortion payments from oil companies to protect
founder of MOEC, a students, workers, and peasants their pipelines and ransom their executives. Unlike the
union. Many MOEC members would become ELN Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),
members. Most of the ELN’s first leaders received Colombia’s larger guerrilla organization, the ELN’s
military training in Cuba in the early 1960s; returning leadership has generally not engaged in drug traffick-
to Colombia, they attempted to apply Fidel Castro’s ing. This abstention coupled with the extremely strict
and Che Guevara’s foquista tactics to Columbia. discipline imposed by the ELN may be what has pre-
The ELN first attacked on January 7, 1965, when 27 vented it from expanding as much as FARC; never-
ELN guerrillas held the town of Simacota for two hours. theless, the ELN has grown significantly—from a few
The organization remained obscure until November hundred members in the early 1980s to more than
1965, when Camilo Torres, a former priest well known 6,000 today.
in Colombia for his political activism, joined the orga- Recently, the ELN has withstood a number of
nization. Despite Torres’s death in action the following challenges to its power. In 1998, to facilitate peace
February, he attracted many other recruits. In 1973, the negotiations, Colombia’s president Andreas Pastrana
organization suffered a major setback: a carefully withdrew government forces from a FARC-controlled
planned Army operation, code named Operation Anori, area comprising about 40 percent of the country.
succeeded in killing several hundred ELN fighters, Pastrana hoped that successful negotiations with
nearly wiping out the group. After a 1978 defection FARC would force the ELN to fall into line. Instead,
resulted in the arrest of the majority of the organiza- the ELN demanded a similar autonomous area, engag-
tion’s leaders, many thought the ELN was finished. ing in a series of spectacular kidnappings in 1999
The dedication of the organization’s grassroots to demonstrate its power. In the fall of 2000, the
workers had been underestimated, however. At first the government moved to grant such an area, but before