Colombia’s two main left-wing guerrilla groups FARC and ELN Monday announced the forming of an alliance to increase attacks against state security forces and to sabotage large-scale multinational projects in the northwestern department of Antioquia.
FACT SHEET: Antioquia
“During the first days of February the prime leaders of the FARC and ELN…in the Bajo Cauca and the high northeast [Uraba region and the Paramillo mountain range] reunited. It was decided [that both groups will] keep fighting against mega-projects, large-scale mining operations, large hydroelectric dams and mono-cultivation [fields], which is impoverishing the people and the environment,” read a statement released by the ELN.
The FARC did not immediately confirm the alliance.
“Within the agreed plan of action, units from the Captain Mauricio Front of the ELN together with FARC guerrillas on February 12 attacked the [army’s] Nudo de Paramillo Task Force, leaving two soldiers dead … The insurgent force did not suffer casualties,” the ELN statement concluded.
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The FARC and the smaller rebel group ELN were engaged in a series of bloody turf wars during the 1990’s up until 2009, when the former top FARC leader “Alfonso Cano” succeeded in creating an almost country-wide peace accord.
MORE: FARC and ELN uniting
Unlike the ELN, the FARC is currently involved in peace talks with the government to end the guerrilla group’s nearly 50-year-old war against the state.