section_path: History/Formation
section_name: Formation
paragraph_text: Formation
  
  The National Liberation Army was founded in 1964, by Fabio Vásquez Castaño and other Colombian rebels trained in Cuba. The group included "urban intellectuals" influenced by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Later, the ELN was headed by a series of Roman Catholic priests, exponents of liberation theology. Most notable was Camilo Torres Restrepo (1929–66), a well-known university professor (egalitarian and Marxist–Leninist) who was openly critical of the what he considered grossly unequal income among the social classes of Colombia. His attraction to the radical ideas of liberation theology led him to join the ELN, a guerrilla army intent upon effecting the revolutionary praxis of liberation theology among the poor people of Colombia. Priest Camilo was killed in his first combat as an ELN guerrilla, and so became the exemplar ELN soldier, to be emulated by ELN guerrillas and other liberation theology priests from the lower ranks of the Roman Catholic priesthood.
  
  In the years following its foundation, it brought together more students and young activists from cities than peasants, a social composition that distinguishes it from the FARC guerrillas, who are essentially peasants.
  
  In the 1970s, after suffering military defeat and internal crises, the ELN was commanded by the Spanish priest Father Manuel Pérez Martínez (1943–98), alias El Cura Pérez, who shared leadership with Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista, alias "Gabino". El Cura Pérez presided over the National Liberation Army as one of its most recognized figures until he died of hepatitis B in 1998. He was instrumental in establishing the ideology of the ELN, a composite of Cuban revolutionary theory and liberation theology that proposes the establishment in Colombia of a Christian and communist regime to resolve the socioeconomic problems of chronic political corruption, poverty, and the exclusion of most Colombians from their country's government.
  
  The ELN guerrillas survived the heavy fighting in the Colombian National Army 's Operation Anorí (1973–74), and then reconstituted their forces, with partial assistance from the Colombian Government of President Alfonso López Michelsen (1974–78), who allowed the ELN to break from and escape encirclement by the Colombian army. López Michelsen helped the ELN in the hope of initiating peace negotiations with them in order to end the civil war. After this, the ELN resumed financing its military operations by means of kidnap for ransom, the extortion of money from Colombian and foreign petroleum companies and the taxation of the private illegal drug trade of Colombia.
  
  The ELN did not participate in the peace negotiations conducted between the Colombian government of President Andrés Pastrana Arango (1998–2002) and FARC, yet did participate in an exploratory conference about possibly participating in peace negotiations. A Colombian government initiative towards granting the ELN a demilitarized zone in the southern region of the Bolívar Department was thwarted by right-wing political pressure from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) whose paramilitary mercenaries conduct anti-guerrilla operations in that part of the department.
  
  Peace talks began in 2022, but in August 2024 the Colombian government announced an end to a six-month ceasefire, as the ELN had returned to its practice of kidnapping civilians for ransom.