ELN

kalder says on May 25, 2008, 06:12:

I've just read this on Human Rights Watch's website:

'Human Rights Watch interviewed Francisco Galán, a spokesperson for the ELN in that group’s preliminary peace negotiations with the Colombian government, at the 'Casa de Paz' and asked him about his group’s landmine use. However, Galan refused to answer our questions about landmines, asserting that the reports by international human rights groups 'do not contribute to the transformation of reality.'

More broadly, Galán claimed that the ELN did not believe that international humanitarian law applied to them, and that instead, they thought a 'creole version' of international humanitarian law should apply in Colombia."

Christ. That bastard's got the whiff of brimstone about him.

"kalder- have you ever had a woman?"--Sam Salmon

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dwmte7 says on May 25, 2008, 07:31:

well, K, after all these years, my personal opinion of the ELN is that they were mild mannered in comparison to the FARC. not to excuse their excesses, but theirs we're nothing like FARC's nor of a quantity thereof.

with the old fart dead, i guess his daughter can come out of hiding--word has it she's in the u.s.--and it's a good guess, other left wing factions will follow the lead of surrendering FARC leaders. (gives me pain to capatalize their names). too, maybe castanos group will follow suit. they're a blood-thirsty lot, just like their so called enemies.

dwmte

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aztec says on May 25, 2008, 11:21:

Our family contact with them was what you might expect from the Corleone family in the movie GodFather.

There was a mob feel to it. Chilling. Efficient, low key and to the point.

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gatogris says on May 25, 2008, 12:37:

The ELN arose out of a combination of groups involved in La Violencia and politically disenchanted students and recent college graduates in the Santander Department who favored a Cuban-style revolution in Colombia. Formed in 1963-64, the Cuban orientation of the ELN contrasts with the FARC, influenced by Soviet politics via the CCP. Cuba provided money and supplies that helped to form the ELN and offered ideological orientation.
The leaders of the ELN claimed to use violence to achieve political objectives, and those objectives, although forwarded by educated university graduates, were to improve conditions of rural peasants and fight against the oppressive system which perpetuated their misery. The educated leadership found that instead of attracting peasants to the military struggle,
it drew armed recruits that came from the same pool of bandit groups which formed the FARC, which of course influenced its organizational culture.

The ELN successfully attracted followers during its early years; its most notable member, the charismatic priest Camilo Torres, was killed in combat and quickly became a celebrated martyr. In the early 1970s, however, the ELN was torn by bitter internal disputes and was practically wiped out by the Colombian Army. In the 1980s it was reborn under the leadership of a Spanish priest, Manuel Perez, with the help of millions of dollars from German contractors who had been hired to build an oil pipeline, and whom the ELN extorted with threats of kidnapping.

Later, the ELN began to feel the direct effects of repression--mainly in northern Colombia--from rightwing paramilitary self-defense groups. Feeling squeezed militarily and excluded politically, the ELN resorted to terrorism. During 1999, they hijacked an Avianca airliner and took its 70 passengers hostage; then they kidnapped more than 150 churchgoers one Sunday in Call and demanded ransom for their release.

In general, the FARC is more involved with the narcotics industry than the ELN and it earns a larger portion of its revenues from the production of illegal drugs. The ELN tends to earn much of its revenue through extortion.

For example, on 65 different occassions in 1997 alone, the National Liberation Army (ELN) attacked the pipeline installations of Colombia's state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol. Since 1986, the ELN has carried out 636 pipeline bombings, which have cost Ecopetrol an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue. It takes money from businesses not too attack them.

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slguy says on May 25, 2008, 13:31:

i'm curious.

when one becomes a target of these bastards, are there options available beesides pay or die? i don't react well to extortion. i'd pay more to solve the problem than the extortionists demanded, if i KNEW the problem was permanently resolved.

and no - putting AUC on my permanent payroll wouldn't be a satisfactory solution either, although a one time fee might make sense.

i am curious what, if any, options people use.

Before you throw me out, make sure I pay my bar tab

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robi666 says on May 25, 2008, 17:15:

It is a bit more complicated than that, slguy

"I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present."

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