Colombia suspends peace talks with ELN rebels after bomb attacks
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday suspended peace talks with Marxist ELN rebels after a series of bombings over the weekend killed seven police officers and injured dozens.
The government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been in talks since February 2017 to end a five decade war, but Santos said he will not accept the group’s continued violence after it launched attacks on three police stations nationwide on Saturday and Sunday.
“My patience and the patience of the Colombian people has its limits, so I have taken the decision to suspend the start of the fifth cycle of negotiations, which was scheduled for the coming days, until we see coherence between the ELN’s words and its actions,” Santos said at an event close to Bogota.
Five police officers were killed and more than 40 wounded on Saturday morning when the ELN detonated a bomb in the northern port city of Barranquilla as they lined up to receive orders.
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