Colombia suspends peace talks with ELN rebels over border fighting

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00:00Colombian soldiers took some of the wounded out in helicopters to try and reimpose some

00:04semblance of order, and the Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro suspended peace

00:10talks with the guerrilla group, the left-wing ELN, the National Liberation Army, that following

00:15deadly violence on Thursday between dissidents of FARC, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces

00:20of Colombia, and the ELN.

00:23Clashes took place in the Catatumbo region on the border with Venezuela.

00:27Petro said on social media that what the ELN has committed in Catatumbo are war crimes.

00:33The dialogue process with this group is suspended.

00:36The ELN has no will for peace, he said.

00:39The governor of Colombia's north Santander department said the clashes were caused by

00:43a territorial dispute linked to the cocaine trade.

00:47They've paralyzed a part of commerce.

00:52There were military confrontations, let's call it that, between these groups.

00:57And we're very concerned.

01:00Rival armed groups have fought for years over control of lucrative coca plantations in the

01:04Colombia-Venezuela border region.

01:06While claiming to be driven by nationalist and leftist ideology, the ELN is involved

01:11in the drug trade and has become one of the region's most powerful organized crime groups.

01:16The latest violence is a political setback for Petro, Colombia's first ever leftist president.

01:22Talks with the ELN broke down for several months last year after the group launched

01:26a deadly attack on a military base.

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