Colombia Government
Captures Leading Figure
of 2nd Largest Rebel
Group
The Colombian government
Monday captured a
leading figure of the
National Liberation Army
(ELN), the nation's
second largest rebel
group, the government
said Tuesday.
Carlos Marin Guarin,
alias Pablito, "was the
National Liberation Army
leader most hostile to
any kind of dialogue
with the government. He
wanted to strengthen the
military wing by drug
trafficking," said
Colombian Defense
Minister Juan Manuel
Santos.
Pablito is charged with
murders, pipeline
attacks and blowing up
pylons in Arauca
department on the
Venezuelan border. He
was arrested as he left
a restaurant in the
Colombian capital Bogota.
Santos said the
government had been
offering a reward for
the capture of Pablito,
who headed about half of
the ELN's force. The
operations also included
smashing up the group's
drug trafficking and
three guerilla fronts.
The ELN, with an
estimated force of some
5,000, has been engaged
in intermittent peace
talks with the Colombian
government since
December 2005, with
Venezuela as a
facilitator.
An ELN framework
agreement has been
hammered out, including
a ceasefire, an
agreement on where
guerillas and the
government can meet for
talks and a hostage
swap. But it has not
been signed.
The ELN was founded in
the 1960s by radical
Catholic priests and
students inspired by
Fidel Castro's Cuban
revolution. It is the
second largest rebel
group in the South
American country, after
the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC).
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