Colombia’s prosecution said Tuesday that guerrilla ELN is planning to “carry out a terrorist attack against the prosecutor general, Francisco Barbosa.”
The ELN dismissed the accusation and said the prosecution “tries to sabotage” ongoing peace talks between the guerrillas and the government of President Gustavo Petro.
Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez did not confirm the prosecution’s accusation and said the security forces will verify if the alleged assassination plot is “probable” or the fabrication of “enemies of the ongoing peace process” with the ELN.
Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said the allegation made less than a week after a bilateral ceasefire took force “could perfectly be a bomb against the peace process.”
Ceasefire with Colombia’s ELN guerrillas takes force
The prosecution claim
In a press release, the prosecution said that military intelligence, the prosecution’s Technical Investigations Unit and a judicial police officer said that the ELN “will carry out a terrorist attack against the prosecutor general.”
According to information from these sources, in July a meeting was held in Venezuela between five high-ranking ELN commanders to train members of this armed group to carry out a sniper attack under the coordination of alias “El Rolo,” the commander of an urban front of the ELN.
Prosecutor General’s Office
El Rolo, whose real name is Jose Benigno Guzman, is the alleged commander of the National Urban War Front, which has units in 10 different cities, according to a military intelligence report obtained by newspaper El Espectador.
According to the prosecution, the sources that alleged the plot also said that there had been similar money flows as ahead of the ELN’s 2019 terrorist attack on Bogota’s police academy.
If the claims are accurate, the ELN would have been planning to assassinate the chief prosecutor while preparing the ceasefire that took force last week.
The prosecution did not publish evidence that would support its claims.
