A truck used in an attack allegedly carried out by ELN fighters against a military base in Puerto Jordan, Arauca department, Colombia, on September 17, 2024 [Handout/Colombian army via AFP]

Bogota, September 19 (RHC)-- The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, ended the dialogue process with the National Liberation Army (ELN), after an attack that left two dead and 27 wounded.  The attack was carried out on Tuesday at the military base of Puerto Jordán, in the department of Arauca, and attributed by the Government to the ELN.

“Today we are facing a dramatic event, repeated in our last years: a volley loaded with explosives that wounds 27 young people and kills two.  According to the data I have, the explosives were placed by the ELN, with whom we were talking about peace.  This is obviously an action that practically closes a peace process with blood,” said the head of state at the inauguration of a new judge of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, Claudia Regina Expósito.

According to information provided by the Colombian Army, it is the ELN guerrilla group that is responsible for the attack.  A statement from the Eighth Division of the National Army, under the operational command of Joint Command Number Four Orinoquia, reported that in the early hours of this Tuesday, "the command post of the Campaign Artillery Battalion No. 18, located in Puerto Jordán, Arauquita, Arauca, was attacked with improvised explosive devices thrown from a volley.”

The Army noted that seven soldiers and non-commissioned officers were seriously injured and evacuated to medical centers for specialized care.  “Unfortunately, two of them, soldiers Julián Patiño Arango and Bairon Andrés Correa Vargas died due to the severity of their wounds.”

The text further states that troops at the command post reacted to the attack and captured “two subjects apparently moving on two motorcycles accompanying the volley at the time of the attack." 

“This terrorist attack, attributed to the organized armed group ELN, Frente de Guerra Domingo Laín Sáenz, was carried out in the vicinity of a school, which put at risk the lives of young people, and constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and a serious breach of international humanitarian law,” the Army said.

In this connection, the Colombian army categorically rejected the act which was aimed at the lives of civilians and extended condolences to the families of soldiers who lost their lives.