ELN News
GameChangers 2019: As Venezuela Sinks, Maduro’s Criminal Ties Keep Him Afloat
Venezuela remained mired in crisis throughout 2019, yet Nicolás Maduro actually consolidated his regime. How did he do...
ELN Profile
ELN
The National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional - ELN) is one of the two main guerrilla armies with left-wing political ideologies operating in Colombia. Initially a Marxist-Leninist nationalist movement, it now appears more focused on kidnapping, extortion and attacks on economic infrastructure. And while it eschewed drug trafficking for decades, it has recently been linked to...
More ELN News
Analysis /
Increase in Violence Leads to More Forced Displacements in Colombia
A recent report has shown the scale to which forced displacements due to violence are increasing in Colombia, primarily affecting vulnerable groups like...
Brief /
Colombia’s EPL Faces Bleak Prospects After Death of Pácora
The killing of the leader of the EPL’s political and military wings by the Colombian army comes at a critical time for the criminal group, as it finds itself...
Analysis /
Ex-FARC Mafia: Colombia’s Criminal Army Settling Down in Venezuela
The announcement in late August that three important former leaders of the demobilized FARC were returning to war did not only threaten the fragile Colombian peace...
Analysis /
Major Implications of Former FARC Leadership Returning to War
In a video published on YouTube, a group of senior former FARC rebel leaders declared the intention to take up arms once again, reviving the FARC-EP and sounding...
Brief /
Colombia’s Armed Groups Prey on Venezuela Migrants
A new report by Human Rights Watch on violence in the department of Norte de Santander, Colombia, shows how vulnerable Venezuelan migrants are to the criminal...
Analysis /
A Former Warlord is Back in Colombia, Will His Drug Trafficking Empire Follow?
Authorities in Colombia have arrested an infamous former paramilitary warlord after he returned to the Andean nation upon finishing his US prison sentence for drug...
Analysis /
Graffiti Death Threats – Venezuela’s New Tool of Fear
The recent appearance of threatening graffiti targeting political, social and student leaders in Venezuela is a previously unknown tactic in the country, although...
Brief /
ELN Still Receiving Payments from Companies in Colombia
The recent arrest of an Argentine businessman, accused of financing the ELN in Colombia between 2011 and 2015, has brought the ongoing ties between criminal groups...
Brief /
ELN-Urabeños Clashes Leave Thousands Trapped in Bojayá, Colombia
An escalating conflict between the Urabeños and the ELN has held thousands of people hostage within the town of Bojayá in Colombia's department of Chocó -- a...