BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) 鈥 Colombia on Wednesday suspended peace talks with the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Liberation Army, or ELN, after blaming the rebel group for an attack that killed two soldiers and injured more than 20.
鈥淭oday the dialogue process is suspended," said the government鈥檚 peace delegation in a statement. "Its viability is severely damaged, and its continuity can only be recovered with an unequivocal manifestation of the ELN鈥檚 will for peace.鈥
This is the deepest crisis of the peace negotiations with the ELN since November 2022 and after President Gustavo Petro took power as the first leftist president launching talks with that and other armed groups under .
The 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Liberation Army, or ELN, with the Colombian government in August, but was still involved in peace talks aimed at ending more than five decades of conflict.
The army said Tuesday that the group fired homemade rockets from a cargo truck that had been parked near a base in Puerto Jordan, a small town in Arauca province.
The rebel group has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
The ELN was founded in the 1960s by union leaders and university students inspired by the Cuban Revolution. The group has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Colombia and Venezuela and finances itself through drug trafficking and illegal gold mines.
Recently the ELN has been spreading into rural areas abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the large rebel group that made a peace deal with Colombia鈥檚 government in 2016.
The attack on Tuesday left two soldiers killed and 26 wounded, according to the latest report from Defense Minister Iv谩n Vel谩squez.
Most of the wounded were airlifted to a military hospital in Bogot谩, Colombia's capital, where Petro visited them on Wednesday. According to the hospital鈥檚 medical report, 13 remain hospitalized in 鈥渟table condition,鈥 most with soft tissue injuries, while five are in the intensive care unit.
Authorities announced on Wednesday a reward of up to $23,700 for information leading to the capture of those responsible for the attack. They also confirmed a reward of up to $948,000 for the main leaders of the ELN.
Petro compared the attack in Arauca to another carried out by the ELN in 2019 against a police school in Bogot谩 that killed 22 people died and dozens injured. That assault led also to the suspension of the peace talks of the rebel group with the government of Iv谩n Duque, president from 2018 to 2022.
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