Colombia’s ELN rebels announce Christmas truce

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group has announced a unilateral truce to last until Jan. 3, the first since the previous ceasefire broke down in August. In a statement posted on X, the National Liberation Army said that it will halt attacks on the military as the nation celebrates Christmas and New Year’s. The group, known in Spanish as the ELN, was founded in the 1960s by university students, priests and union leaders inspired by the Cuban revolution. It currently has 6,000 fighters in Colombia and Venezuela according to Ministry of Defense estimates, and finances itself through illegal mining, extortion rackets and the drug trade.