In recent hours, President Gustavo Petro launched a harsh message against the ELN, which he accused of justifying violence while talking about peace.
‘Greed’, according to the president, is the true cause behind the murders of peasants and young people recruited by the guerrilla, facts that today keep any attempt at negotiation frozen.
The statement was published in the early hours of this Saturday, January 17, after the armed group spread messages in which, according to the head of state, the impact of massacres that occurred in rural regions of the country is minimized.
Petro questioned that an organization that calls itself revolutionary celebrates the death of humble residents and members of the Public Force, many of them from popular sectors.
In his message, the president made a direct call for reflection, pointing out that no political project can be sustained on the blood of young Colombians and Venezuelans recruited to protect illegal economies.
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In his opinion, drug trafficking ended up blurring any ideological discourse and turned combatants into pieces of a business that only benefits third parties.
The president also recalled that a negotiated solution had already been put on the table for the ELN, but that this was dynamited by a violent escalation in areas such as Catatumbo, where the control of illicit crops led to murders and displacements. For this reason, he stressed that currently there are no conditions to resume peace talks.
Petro was emphatic in warning that, if the guerrilla does not abandon Venezuelan territory, the Colombian State will advance in coordinated military actions with the neighboring country.
Furthermore, he reiterated that any future process must include the return of combatants to Colombia and their transition to productive reintegration schemes.
The ELN talks about peace and celebrates that it murdered 200 humble peasants a year ago, and kills a young soldier, perhaps the son of peasants too or of a family from some popular neighborhood in our cities, and is happy, I repeat, what stupidity greed is. Sit down, reflect…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 17, 2026
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