The guerrilla group Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) announced yesterday a unilateral ceasefire in Colombia that will take effect next Wednesday, on the occasion of the Christmas and New Year holidays. The measure, which the group says seeks to “send a clear message of peace” to the Colombian people, will extend through the first days of January 2026, in what it has presented as a humanitarian gesture during a period traditionally reserved for family togetherness and social calm.
The declaration contrasts with the recent violence that has dominated the national agenda in recent weeks. Just days earlier, ELN ordered a nationwide armed strike that resulted in dozens of attacks across several regions, multiple victims, and a climate of tension that forced a reinforced presence of state security forces and the issuance of alerts to the population traveling through certain rural areas of the country.
The statement included direct criticism of the military deployment by the United States in the Caribbean, which the armed group views as a threat to the sovereignty of the region’s peoples, and it maintained the ambivalence between an alleged willingness to engage in dialogue with the state and a decision to continue military actions against the Public Security Forces.
ELN declares Christmas ceasefire in Colombia, warns of action in 2026
The ELN statement indicates that the suspension of hostilities will begin at midnight on Dec. 24 and will remain in effect until midnight on Jan. 3, 2026. The guerrilla group assures that during this period, all of its structures must refrain from carrying out offensive military operations against the armed forces of the Colombian state.
“The National Directorate of ELN instructs all its structures not to carry out offensive military operations against the armed forces of the state. The ceasefire will begin at 00:00 hours on Dec. 24 of this year and will end at 00:00 hours on Jan. 3, 2026,” the armed group’s announcement stated.
This type of ceasefire has been declared in previous years by the insurgent group during the December holidays and is part of a practice that seeks, according to its leaders, to ease the situation of violence affecting communities in regions where they have a historical presence.
The decision was presented as a “Christmas gift” for the Colombian people, but also as an opportunity for families and territories most affected by the armed conflict to experience, even if only for a few days, a truce in hostilities.
The announcement comes after one of the most violent weeks of the year, during which at least 60 violent actions attributed to ELN were recorded, including explosions, harassment of police stations, and blockades of key roadways in departments such as Antioquia and Norte de Santander.
Despite all this, the armed group maintains in its letter that “it is not ELN policy to carry out military operations that affect the population; it is the state’s intelligence bodies and the major media outlets aligned with them that wage a communications war, seeking to create that false image based on lies.”
El ELN envía al pueblo colombiano un mensaje claro de paz declarando un Cese Unilateral el Fuego para esta temporada de festividades navideñas y fin de año.
El cese iniciará a las 00:00 horas del 24 de diciembre del presente año y finalizará a las 00:00 horas del 3 enero de 2026 pic.twitter.com/2RQ4glots7— DelegaDPaz (@DDPazELN) December 21, 2025
Criticism of the US military deployment in the Caribbean and new actions for 2026
In its statement, as it had already done in the declaration of the armed strike issued days ago, ELN criticized the actions of the United States and its military deployment in the Caribbean, in the context of the purported fight against drug trafficking.
“While the government of the United States deploys its troops across the Caribbean to threaten, attack, and plunder the peoples and nations of our continent, the National Liberation Army sends the Colombian people a clear message of peace by declaring a unilateral ceasefire for this Christmas and year-end holiday season,” the illegal armed group stated.
“In these times of aggression by the U.S. empire, ELN stands ready alongside patriots to defend Colombia’s sovereignty. Colombia … for the workers!” the group concluded.
In addition, the criminal organization warned in its message that it will resume its offensive armed actions next year, justifying its decisions as part of the defense of what it considers the country’s sovereignty and the fight against what it has described as external and internal aggression.
That threat to resume attacks underscores the underlying difficulties in relations between ELN and the Colombian state, with ambiguous messages that mix announcements of a willingness to engage in dialogue with a military hostility that leaves no doubt about its capacity to harass military personnel and civilians in various parts of the country.
Unlike other armed groups that have signed peace agreements in the past, ELN maintains a dispersed structure, with a presence in remote rural areas and a command apparatus that has resisted attempts at formal negotiation. Peace talks with the government have been suspended for months, with no concrete progress that would allow a clear path toward de-escalation of the conflict to come into view.