On September 9, the ELN Dialogue Delegation published in video [*], this interview with Comandante Pablo Beltrán, on the state of the conflict, the possibilities of peace and the failed war on drugs.
In Colombia, a vision that denies the conflict is being strengthened, led by president Petro, who says that there are only regional wars for illicit income. In this context, how does the ELN define the armed conflict today, and what is the validity of the political solution?
The new generations have the right to know the history of the conflict, so that they are not manipulated.
In 1948 there was a very charismatic, very popular leader, who was a liberal socialist and was going to win the presidency and then the traditional parties got together to prevent it and were not able to win, and when he was going to win, then, they killed him.
Why did they kill Gaitán, because Gaitán was looking for a change that would favor the majority of the people and of course, when changing in favor of the majority of the people, those who had privileges have to give them up – because privileges always deny rights – this is why they killed Gaitán, for seeking a change for the people.
What did the people do? They armed themselves and created the guerrillas, that’s where the guerrillas were born, there were peace processes, they demobilized those guerrillas, then we appeared in the ’60s, and today the ELN has been saying for 61 years that it continues to fight for that change that Gaitan said, that’s why they persecute us, they demonize us, they say that we are ‘devils with horns and tails’, etc.; because we say we have to change Colombia, so that the economy and politics serve the majority of the people, not a small group.
What is the political solution to the conflict? Let’s look at how we end the armed conflict, but also how we agree on transformations and make changes that change the causes of the conflict. For example, in Colombia, it became law that anyone who thinks differently than those at the top is persecuted and exterminated… This must end; this is a very important change. Everyone should be able to have a political perspective to seek change in Colombia and not be persecuted or exterminated for this. This is a powerful political change.
We are of the idea that if it is possible to reach agreements, if a political solution is possible, and for us it is strategic that the whole of society participates in this construction of peace, this is the political solution.
In the framework of the suspended peace talks, the ELN has recognized that all political actors in the country must be willing to change. What is the situation of the dialogues, how could they be unblocked, what is the ELN willing to do?
For many years in Colombia, the ruling elite told Colombians that achieving peace meant ending a guerrilla group. They’ve been ending guerrilla groups for 60 years, one after another. But of course, they end a guerrilla group, blame it for everything that happens, and the country doesn’t change. This is the failure of the peace proposal that the ruling elites in Colombia have. We said, don’t count on the ELN for that. Period. Get that out of your heads. We don’t accept it, nor will they impose it on us. Let’s do something else, another model.
What is the other model? Let’s make agreements, let’s end the armed conflict, let’s agree on transformations, let’s get society involved in this and the ELN changes, but it’s ‘a children’s story’, a fable, to say that the ELN changes and the ruling classes don’t change, and the persecution and extermination of those who think differently doesn’t change, no sir… for Colombia to change, we all change.
What would be the way to get out of the current impasse? Well, the current government, or the next one in office, would respect the two Framework Agreements we signed with Santos in 2016 and with Petro in 2023. The 2023 agreement is a qualification of the 2016 agreement, so the ELN will respect this, comply with this, and ask the State to comply. This is the way out.
Alleged intelligence reports link the ELN to the so-called “Cartel of the Suns,” whose existence Petro has denied. What is the ELN’s position on these reports and on drug trafficking?
There are two problems. First, US imperialism has become a “magician” at finding excuses to start wars and justify wars. They justified the claim that Iraq “had weapons of mass destruction,” which they didn’t. They also said that Iran “had nuclear weapons,” which they didn’t. But they fabricate these lies to start wars.
At this juncture of 2025, what lie is Trump inventing to start a war or to expand it? That all his opponents are “drug traffickers.” Period. This is the “weapon of mass destruction” of today, then, this is the method, the way the United States wages war.
The ELN’s position on drug trafficking is: there is a failed war on drugs, started by Nixon in 1972, which has only enriched the banks, increased consumption, increased prices, and increased coca cultivation, for example, in Colombia. If it failed, then let’s find another way out.
There’s a very important group of former presidents and prime ministers trying to shape that. If I’m not mistaken, former President Santos is on board. Let’s continue looking for another way out of this war on drug trafficking. Let’s keep looking for another way out of this war on drug trafficking. It’s not necessary to criminalize farmers. It’s cheaper to grow coca than cassava. It’s not necessary to spray Colombia with glyphosate, to wipe out everything wherever it falls. It’s not necessary to wage war on those who consume their personal dose. We must stop considering them criminals and instead consider them someone with an illness, a disease, and who must be treated as such.
If we make this change, we’ll put an end to the macabre tale of the War on Drugs, which has been the instrument the United States has used to fuel its wars since 1972. Now, Trump is bringing another chapter of the failed War on Drugs to Latin America.
The ELN is experiencing several scenarios of confrontation today in various regions of the country. What are the characteristics of these confrontations and the greatest difficulties?
The gringo way of war is designed as a proxy war, a subsidized or delegated war, which involves having another group wage war for them, so they don’t suffer casualties.
How do they wage this war in Colombia? With gangs and cartels.
To whom is this war being directed? To social leaders, to a guerrilla group like the ELN, and to popular political movements. This is war.
Five war zones: Cauca, Chocó, Southern Bolívar, Catatumbo, Arauca.
One by one.
In Cauca, during Duque’s administration [2018-2022], the Army’s alliance with the so-called dissidents killed 70 percent of Cauca’s social leaders; they weren’t members of the ELN, they were social leaders.
What were these social leaders doing? They had their own program, defined by themselves, to replace illicit crops in the Micay River. Each year, they reduced a portion. The dissidents arrived with the Army, as there is evidence, and they killed 70 percent of the leaders; the rest ended up in a coliseum in Popayán. They brought people from the cultivation areas where they maintained their land and replanted the Micay River with coca.
That’s the Cauca War. Who started it? The dissidents and the Army. That process began in 2018 and is still ongoing.
In Chocó, the Gulf Clan launched an offensive against the ELN from Ríosucio, in northern Chocó, all the way to the south, bordering the Valle del Cauca. What has it achieved with this? It’s established five cocaine export corridors. These cartels pay Army officers, they pay non-commissioned officers, they pay the Army. It’s a mafia state, and this mafia state influences and buys off the state’s armed forces. This is what’s happening in Chocó.
In Southern Bolívar, to make them ‘go back’: for every soldier deployed on the ground, there are three guys from the Gulf Clan, that is, there are 1,500 Gulf Clan soldiers and 500 state soldiers. This is the war that is going on in Southern Bolívar.
Why do they wage war if there’s no coca there? There are two large gold deposits, the largest in Colombia. Most of that land is in the hands of artisanal miners, who hold the mining titles, so the issue is dispossessing them. Front men arrive, buy the titles, and then hand them over to multinationals.
Where are the artisanal miners drilling down into the gold deposit with their traditional techniques? At 300 meters. When the multinationals arrive, what hole will they make? At 3,000 meters. This is the war in Southern Bolívar.
Who owns that gold? Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, Uribe, and all their henchmen—these are the ones behind the bonds. They go and form shell companies in Canada and come back as “Canadian mining companies,” but they’re the same people. That’s the war in Southern Bolívar.
In Catatumbo, it’s the most recent one. There’s a guy there named Richard. Where’s the ELN investigation into Richard going? After the FARC demobilized, they brought him from Guaviare. He came back and set up the whole cocaine business in Catatumbo. It grew from 50 to 500 guys.
Who were Richard’s partners? The Albanian mafia, which is the CIA, or American intelligence, had the Albanian mafia extort their cocaine and bring them rifles. The last shipment of rifles was 1,000 AKs. They’re also connected to Venezuelan opposition figures who provide the ships. They’re also connected to the Aragua Train, and they also have gangs in Cúcuta who run their entire business, called the AK-47s. This is Richard.
Who said Richard is Manuel Marulanda’s heir? He’s an instrument of the US CIA, waging war through these gangs on that border. And who are they screwing over there? The social bases, and they’re becoming a platform for aggression against Venezuela. This is Catatumbo.
In Arauca, the same. They have created successive gangs, to maintain that state of war. In Arauca since 2022, there have been 4 consecutive years of war against these gangs, and a General who was there, who was named Africano, when he ran out of bandits, they went and recruited more mercenaries, paid them and maintained the bands.
Now the last problem has broken out, because the gangs that were more in Vichada and Guainía, began to come to Arauca and there began the fighting, which has been more intense in this month of August
What are these gangs financed from? Of all the coca that they bring from Guaviare and that they take out of the Orinoco. At this moment the threat of these gangs, since they cannot do anything to the ELN, then they are killing social leaders, they are threatening social leaders. What is their objective, to finish the social fabric of Arauca.
Why did the war start with them? With the first ones in charge, they began to distribute coca seeds again, and the communities had made the decision not to plant coca again. The communities asked the ELN, so we said, don’t receive money or coca seeds from the dissidents, that’s when the fight with them began, because they wanted to force people to plant coca again, that’s the conflict in Arauca, Vichada and Guainía.
In conclusion, the United States cares a lot about maintaining its military bases in Colombia, because from here they have control of the continent. Second, the United States is very interested in the world’s first oil reserve, which is in Venezuela, and all the minerals of the Orinoco Mining Arc, which is the Guiana Shield. And the minerals of the Guiana Shield are worth more than the oil that Venezuela has as reserves. The United States is an empire in decline and needs these resources.
Who stands in the way of taking the resources? The Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, the ELN in Colombia, for this reason they declare us military objective number one; but since they don’t send troops here, so they put the gangs to fight us, this is the proxy war that we face.
According to Petro, the guerrillas now carry drugs in their backpacks… What does Comandante Pablo Beltrán carry in his backpack?
I carry a book by a French philosopher Henri Hude, which is called ‘Philosophy of War’, I carry a personal computer, some memoirs and a change of clothes, a tent, another uniform, that’s what I carry in my backpack.
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[*] Watch video at https://vk.com/video-232575114_456239017
Source: https://eln-voces.net/2025/09/22/el-modelo-de-pacificacion-fracaso-pablo-beltran/