Colombia's ELN rebels free 5 police officers as they push for national accord

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group on Monday released five police officers it had kidnapped during the first week of January, as it pushes for a “national accord” to overcome political conflicts in the South American nation.

The police officers had been taken hostage by the National Liberation Army, or ELN, on Jan. 6 while they were off duty and were traveling in a bus in the northeastern Catatumbo region.

In a social media post Monday, Colombia’s national agency for the defense of human rights shared photos of a group of fighters in camouflage releasing the police officers and said they were in good health.

“We call on armed groups to immediately free all of those who have been deprived of their liberty,” the Human Rights Defender's Office said on social platform X.

The ELN has an estimated 5,000 fighters in Colombia and Venezuela.

Peace talks between the Marxist rebels and Colombia’s government were suspended last year, after the ELN launched an offensive in Colombia’s Catatumbo region that forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes.

Last week, the group said in a statement that after elections in Colombia this year, it would like to work with the nation’s new government to design agreements aimed at defeating poverty, protecting ecosystems and “overcoming” the drug trade in rural areas.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro replied, saying that the group’s leadership has to give up drug trafficking and recruiting minors if it wants peace talks to resume.

The ELN has been accused of profiting from the drug trade and of blowing up oil pipelines in eastern Colombia. The group, founded in the early 1960s, was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 1997.

The presidents of Colombia and the United States recently discussed the possibility of joint actions against the ELN in a phone call that helped to dissipate tensions between both countries, according to Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti.

The ELN has said it is willing to unite with other rebel groups in Colombia to fend off attacks from the United States.