This July 4, the ELN celebrates 61 years of uninterrupted armed uprising, firm in its strategic objectives, formulated from its inception and enriched by the struggle of the people and their heroic fighters, who have offered their lives.
After only one year of existence, the ELN powerfully called Camilo Torres Restrepo’s attention, that a group of young people together with peasant fighters had the courage to take up arms, to seek changes in Colombian society, but this time with an authentically popular and revolutionary inspiration, they would never again believe in leaderships coming from traditional politicians.
Camilo, like Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in his time, was the most important leader of the Colombian people, of popular and revolutionary causes, he identified in the ELN’s messages the same objectives contemplated in his United Front program; as a result of these identities, a renewed strategic project would evolve and strengthened by the unity of the ELN with the United Front, which would culminate in Camilo’s definitive link to the guerrilla ranks.
Just as he spoke to the people and called them unequivocally to the armed rebel uprising, Camilo honorably fell in combat a few months later, as many combatants and commanders have done. Although the time in the guerrilla struggle was short, his experience with commanders and combatants was very deep, leaving impregnated in the conscience and hearts of ELN his revolutionary spirit, his unwavering loyalty to the cause of the peoples.
Just as peoples and collectivities make their leaders, on this occasion, it is Camilo’s disposition and dimension that challenges us not to be inferior to his example. Camilo, as an authentic leader of the people, assumed a commitment to it, to make Colombia a sovereign, democratic and just country; therefore, the ELN inherited from Camilo, that commitment to his people.
During these 61 years, the ELN has remained united and firm in the struggle, it has not doubted it, despite the fact that the other groups declined in the struggle and are functional to the political regime and its governments, the ELN will continue to fulfill Camilo’s legacy and commitment to the people, to the integrity of his revolutionary struggle and for Colombia to be definitively different, just as Camilo dreamed it.
Consistent with these aspirations of Camilo and the Colombian people, on this 61st anniversary of the ELN we reaffirm our invitation to the democratic, popular and revolutionary sectors to strengthen the struggle, until the transformations that the nation demands are achieved.
¡Colombia… for workers!
Not one step back… Liberation or death!
Comando Central
Ejército de Liberación Nacional
Mountains of Colombia
June 30, 2025
Editorial Revista Insurrección N° 1006
Source: https://insurgenciaurbana-eln.net/el-sueno-de-camilo-sigue-intacto/