By AFP | 2025-03-14

THE CATATUMBO MOUNTAINS, Colombia -- Years of "total peace" could become "total war," commanders from Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group are claiming.

In a rare interview, carried out at a secret mountain location near the Venezuelan border, two senior guerrilla commanders told AFP that they were open to dialogue but ready for war.

The thousands-strong guerrilla group has waged a 60-year leftwing insurgency against the Colombian state, seizing swathes of territory and becoming a major player in the global cocaine trade.

Since January, battles between the ELN and a rival guerrilla group in the Catatumbo border region have displaced almost 56,000 inhabitants and left at least 76 dead, according to government estimates.

It is some of the worst violence Colombia has seen since peace accords were agreed upon in 2016.

The government has responded by declaring a state of emergency and deploying thousands of troops to the region.

President Gustavo Petro has vowed to reimpose state control by force if necessary. "The ELN has chosen the path of war, and that's what they will get," he said.

Guarded by some 30 heavily armed fighters, ELN Commander "Ricardo" and Commander "Silvana Guerrero" –- sitting with rifles in hand -- indicated they were open to dialogue but ready for war.

"Petro has declared war. We are not afraid of that," said Ricardo, a leader of the ELN's northeastern war front.

"This total peace that Petro has been talking about, in the end, it is becoming total war."

Turf war

Recent clashes between the ELN and the 33rd Front, another armed leftist group, were prompted by a turf war over territory and lucrative cocaine trafficking routes into Venezuela, say analysts.

The ELN's territory is an important source of coca and a gateway to the Caribbean coast -- where Colombian cocaine begins its journey to the rest of the world.

The ELN has close ties to Mexico's powerful Sinaloa Cartel, the government has alleged.

Commander Silvana denied direct involvement in narcotrafficking but admitted the group does levy taxes on cocaine produced in the area.

Silvana, whose real name is Luz Amanda Payares, is wanted by Colombia's government and is the subject of a $25,000 bounty for her capture.

'The struggle continues'

Petro's government has staked his political fortunes on a policy of "total peace."

Dissident groups have used the government's near-unilateral truce to regroup and grow in strength, critics say.

An alphabet soup of armed groups now vie for control of territory, extortion rackets, illegal mining and illicit trade routes across the country.

As a result, the amount of land used for cocaine production has increased by 420% since 2012, according to United Nations estimates.

Many Colombians fear that ever-stronger armed groups could return the country to the decades of an internecine war that has killed 1.1 million people since the 1960s, according to a government estimate.

Even though the ELN insists that it is open to a "political solution," more violence looks likely.

"In a short time," the Catatumbo region will see "a counteroffensive of a different magnitude," Commander Silvana predicted.