Political Report #1046 AELN Commander Manrique Dies: What Is Next?

By Eliza Davis and Michael Paczkowski, Research Associates at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

On Sunday, June 14, 2015, the Colombian military announced the death of prominent ELN commander José Amín Hernández Manrique in the northern department of Antioquia. The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army; ELN) is a left-wing guerilla movement, operating under a Marxist platform with the aim of liberating Colombia. The death of Manrique, also known as "Marquitos," illustrates the rising tensions between the Colombian government and its left-wing guerilla adversaries, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revoluationary Armed Forces of Colombia; FARC) and the ELN. Colombia has been plagued by widespread violence for more than 50 years, which has produced some 220,000 deaths and another 5 million refugees. The Colombian government and the FARC, the largest and oldest guerilla group in Colombia today, renewed peace negotiation talks-the fourth such attempted in the past 30 years-in December 2012 in Havana, Cuba. So far, the parties have agreed upon three terms of agreement: land reform, political integration, and drug trafficking. Consequentially, Bogotá and the FARC have yet to agree upon the reparations for the conflict's victims, the disarmament of the rebel forces, and the methods of implementation once a finalized agreement has been signed. While the ELN has had only a minimal presence in the Havana negotiations, the FARC has repeatedly encouraged a greater ELN participation in the discussion, facilitated by Bogotá's recent lift of the 182 arrest warrants against FARC Commander-in-Chief Rodrigo Londono Echeverri.[1] >>>To continue reading this article, please click here

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Political Report # 1045 A Journey Toward Colombian Unity by Michael Paczkowski

Featured photo: © European Union 2014 - European Parliament. Political Report # 1045 A Journey Toward Colombian Unity By: Michael Paczkowski, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Since December 2012, representatives from the Colombian left-wing guerrilla movement, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC), have been in peace negotiations with the Colombian Government in Havana, Cuba. This is the fourth attempt in the past 30 years to find a solution to the continuing violence in Latin America's most war torn nation. The negotiations in Havana have been slogging forward, but have found some successes on the issues of land reform, drug trafficking, and future FARC member political participation. The nation has now suffered through five decades of conflict, and the results have been brutal: some 220,000 dead and another five million people are refugees. There are many warring parties. The FARC, the largest and oldest group, claims to be fighting for agrarian reform and anti-imperialism, with the ultimate goal of the violent removal of the Colombian government. A second left-wing guerrilla movement, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (the National Liberation Army, or ELN), claims that it is battling for a Marxist revolution and the liberation of Colombia. The most murderous group involved in the fighting has been the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC), a collection of right-wing paramilitary death squads responsible for the preponderance of the savage human rights crimes that have plagued this nation.[1]