Threat Posed by the ELN
The ELN Poses a Threat to Colombia’s Mining Industry Despite Successful FARC Peace Talks
February 10, 2016
Josh Bloom – Primary Article Contributor and Analyst following Colombia
Cole Grossinger – Editor and Team Leader following Colombia
Keywords: Colombia, Plan Colombia, United States Military Spending, ELN, Popular Liberation Army
The United States’ partnership with the Santos government, titled Plan Colombia, is gradually scaling back American military funding in Colombia as the Santos government gains more control and stability within its borders. At the same time, the Colombian Government is nearing a resolution to the conflict with FARC and appears to be headed towards an effective long-term peace agreement. This report analyzes the risk that secondary guerilla forces that are unaffiliated with FARC pose to foreign mining firms looking to invest in the Colombian mining industry.
The main secondary guerrilla force that could pose a risk is the National Liberation Army (ELN). Radical leftist priests and university students inspired by Ché Guevara founded the ELN in 1964 following the Colombian Civil War. In 1973, the government killed 135 of 200 members, including founding members Fabio and Manuel Vásquez Castaño. The ELN had, until the government raid, avoided kidnappings on an ideological basis. The new leadership team decided to start to kidnap and ransom off wealthy Colombians and politicians to finance the rebuilding of the organization. In the 1980s the ELN started targeting the employees of oil companies operating in its vicinity.
Today, the ELN still controls sections of the Colombian countryside and would not be bound by the peace deal with the FARC. In fact, the ELN has responded to the initiation of peace talks between the FARC and the government by launching a new campaign of terror attacks. In 2013, the ELN “successfully attacked 10 different energy infrastructures, including wells, pipelines and mines in Colombia”, which shows that the secondary guerilla force still poses a serious risk to foreign investors in Colombian mining.
The ELN could also take advantage of the power vacuum left by FARC and the declining United States military spending to take an offensive to control more territory. This could cause an increase in risk to foreign mining investors because the secondary guerilla forces have historically kidnapped foreign nationals for the purpose of collecting ransom. This could disrupt the mining operations and deter people from wanting to work in the mines.
While it is possible that the United States would still maintain the proportional military spending required to mitigate the risks posed by the ELN, multinational firms looking to invest in Colombia should be concerned by the organization’s recent violent activity. Even as peace talks between the Santos government and FARC progress, security risks remain within Colombia’s mining industry.
