This year, 2026, marks six decades since the death in combat of our beloved Commander-in-Chief Camilo Torres Restrepo, and his presence is more alive than ever.
We continue to speak of Camilo’s many facets: priest, sociologist, son, brother, friend, comrade, agitator, organizer, researcher, national political leader, guerrilla fighter… but essentially, Camilo was a complete revolutionary; his life was a whirlwind of action and commitment to the people.
Camilo’s memory, his work, his praxis will always be contested, since, depending on the political and ideological perspectives that approach him, some of his dimensions are emphasized. In recent years, a narrative has been constructed by the establishment that presents us with a blurred and bourgeois Camilo; this narrative is also used to justify the counterinsurgency war against the ELN, the insurgent organization that Camilo helped build and where he sealed his commitment to Liberation or Death. This truth cannot be falsified, nor can the battle of Patio Cemento, that tragic February 15th (1966), where the Commander gave his life, be erased from history.
The oligarchy and its state, aware of Camilo’s subversive power, kidnapped his body; but his testimony, his political work, his programmatic proposal, and his commitment to the very end continued to resonate through mountains and cities, in thousands of women and men, in social, community, and revolutionary organizations, in hundreds of battles for national liberation and socialism. Camilo has passed into history and cannot be erased, nor used for purposes contrary to his life.
Today, the National Liberation Army (ELN) learned that his body had been found and its authenticity verified. Word is spreading, and the Colombian people, for whom he fought and gave his life, expect that his remains will be respected and laid to rest on the campus of the National University, where he served as Chaplain, founder of the Faculty of Sociology, and a role model for university students.
This event of such historical significance must not be distorted or used for any political gain.
Eternal glory to Commander-in-Chief Camilo Torres Restrepo.
Colombia… for the workers!
Not one step back… liberation or death!
Central Command
National Liberation Army (ELN)
Mountains of Colombia
January 22, 2026
Source: https://eln-voces.net/2026/01/26/camilo-siempre-presente/