Commanders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group have ruled out resuming peace negotiations with President Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
In January, the ELN’s Northeastern War Front began an intense confrontation with the EMC, a dissident group of the former FARC, sparking an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Catatumbo.
Commanders of this guerrilla cell asserted that President Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” policy “has failed” and that there is no longer any possibility of signing an agreement with his government.
ELN rules out reviving peace negotiations with Colombia’s Petro
In a statement, ELN commanders in the Catatumbo region, northeastern Colombia, declared there is no possibility of reviving peace negotiations between this armed group and President Petro’s government.
Silvana Guerrero and Ricardo, who go by those aliases, leaders of the ELN front in this conflict-ridden region, gave an interview to Caracol TV, where they harshly criticized Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace proposal.
“‘Total peace’ is ‘total failure’… And total peace has turned into total war. That’s what’s happening in Catatumbo—total war,” Ricardo stated when asked about the peace policy.
Negotiations with this guerrilla group collapsed in mid-January. Colombian President Gustavo Petro made this decision amid an escalation of violence by the illegal armed group, which is fighting for territorial control against dissidents of the defunct FARC’s 33rd Front.
In their remarks, the two ELN commanders strongly attacked the Colombian president, even suggesting he consult a psychiatrist. “We were convinced that with him, we could make progress. Look how we failed in that trust and in our assessment at the time,” Silvana Guerrero told the TV program.
ELN’s personal attacks against President Petro
President Petro prioritized dialogue with the ELN, Latin America’s oldest active guerrilla group, immediately after his electoral victory in 2022. The president’s efforts—extending far beyond his administration—to achieve peace with this armed group in Colombia have been immense, overcoming all types of obstacles and criticism from the opposition.
The president’s disappointment was profound upon recognizing the guerrilla’s complete lack of interest in peace, as they returned to violence without regard for its impact on civilians.
Local ELN commanders in Catatumbo blame Petro for the breakdown of dialogue, rejecting any possibility of the government’s Total Peace project and personally attacking its promoter.
“I’d recommend Petro see a psychiatrist, get himself checked out, because he’s acting entirely against what he was elected for. The people elected Petro thirsting for a political solution, desperate for change. What changes have we seen to date?” Ricardo emphasized on television.
For his part, Gustavo Petro responded to these comments via his X account, vowing to continue working toward a negotiated resolution to conflicts.
“I’m not chasing votes, ELN representative who betrayed your role as negotiators. I seek the peace that you, ELN leaders, did not understand—and I fear never will. Peace is revolutionary, which is why the oligarchy has plunged us into ‘one hundred years of solitude,’ killing one another, centuries of violence,” the Colombian president wrote in a lengthy post.
Veo gente en los poderes públicos y en la delincuencia buscando censurame, por doquier. No diga esto, rectifique, retráctese, etc. No transmita. No hable. Quieren silenciar, así de simple, la palabra, que es la base de la política, del logos y el pensar y del dialogo.
Me gusta…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 31, 2025
Two years of negotiations between Colombia and ELN collapsed after violence in Catatumbo
Although the situation in Catatumbo had been deteriorating—a reality some organizations had been denouncing since last November—the tacit truce between the ELN and FARC dissidents in the region definitively collapsed in January.
The subsequent humanitarian crisis left 53,000 people displaced and over 20,000 others confined. The government deployed 10,000 military personnel to the area, but public security forces still lack guaranteed control over the zone.
The government’s military response, along with its announcement to suspend peace negotiations, was poorly received by the ELN. This group has repeatedly clashed with the government during over two years of fragile dialogue.
“Petro declared war on Catatumbo, not on us. You can see how we are. Here, we’re not paralyzed by fear over what they say. For 60 years, we’ve been in this same war defending our territory, and we’ll keep defending it,” added Ricardo, using a defiant tone in an interview with Colombian television.
The fight for a key drug trafficking hub in Colombia
Behind this rhetoric lie the multimillion-dollar interests of illegal armed groups vying to control one of Colombia’s primary drug trafficking zones.
Catatumbo is indeed a critical hub for the narcotics chain. As of 2023, this region—comprising 11 municipalities—accounted for 17% of the country’s total coca crops. The latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted Colombia had 253,000 hectares of coca cultivation, with 43,866 concentrated in Catatumbo alone.
Starting in 2021, as coca leaf prices fell, the ELN and dissident factions of the FARC’s 33rd Front agreed to a truce, dividing the trade and allowing buyers into territories now contested.
However, by late last year, prices in the illicit market began to rebound. The pact dissolved, and clashes over control of the lucrative profits erupted into violence unseen in years.