Colombia’s foremost rebel group, Ejército de Liberación Nacional, or ELN, made an unexpected motion for a détente with the national government on Sunday via the group’s leader, Eliécer Erlington Chamorro Acosta, who is more widely known by his nom de guerre, Antonio García, when he issued a video proposing that an independent international commission be formed to investigate the organization’s alleged drug trafficking ties.
President Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 rebel himself during the movement’s peak counterinsurgency era in the 1980s, wrote on X voicing his approval of García’s request, writing:
“The ELN must understand that the path to peace consists of the disconnection of the same group from drug trafficking.”
For decades, Colombia’s rebel groups, including the notorious FARC, which disbanded after a peace accord was reached with the national government in 2016, have been accused of trafficking in illicit narcotics to supplement their forces with heavy weaponry and recruits, who are often called to bear arms against the state and join rebel forces as a means of escaping poverty in the hill country of northern Colombia.
Decades earlier, Marxist-inspired revolutionary movements snubbed their noses at the thought of profiting from the sale of drugs like opiates and cocaine, instead stewarding their movements with visions of egalitarianism and class struggle, with aspirations of penetrating Colombia’s national political society and occupying positions of high office.
However, the temptation of unlimited supplies of cash to be earned from having a hand in the lucrative drug trade proved too much to be ignored.
Over the course of the last few months, the ELN has expressed interest in resuming negotiations with the state after peace talks failed early last year when the ELN mounted a vicious military offensive in the Catatumbo region against a rival group of FARC dissidents known as the 33rd Front.
The clashes killed hundreds of innocent civilians and displaced roughly 50,000 others in what became one of Colombia’s largest humanitarian crises in recent memory.
The group has long refuted claims that it actively participates in the trafficking of illicit narcotics, although conceding that the group does profit from imposing taxes on major distributors of drugs in the country.
Colombia has also witnessed the largest production of coca plants in 2024 compared to recent years.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that 261,000 hectares (about 645,000 acres) were planted with coca crops in Colombia in that same year—almost double what was planted in 2016, according to the Associated Press.
President Petro has called on the rebel group to support his administration’s efforts to replace coca crops in the northeastern Catatumbo region with domestic crops as a way to help propel the ailing socioeconomic conditions of the region’s rural population, the prime target group that guerrilla groups pinpoint for recruitment efforts.
The ELN is Colombia’s largest and most formidable rebel group with approximately 5,000 rebel fighters filling its ranks.
Petro also wrote on X on Sunday:
“Crop substitution will be strongly financially supported by the government, in favor of the peasantry of Catatumbo without ideological distinction, and to their associations.”
Petro also added regarding the proposed independent commission:
“The group must be scientific and independent from governments; its information must be delivered to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.”
The motion to request the establishment of the commission comes on the heels of President Petro’s visit to the White House earlier this month, following a period of hostile relations between the two historically close partners.
The Trump administration’s targeted campaign to reduce the flow of illicit narcotics in the region and to minimize the influence of criminal drug trafficking networks in Latin America could potentially spur the ELN back to the negotiating table with the Petro government, which is scheduled to end its term in August.
