ELN:A Profile of Ejército de Liberación Nacional

by K.J. Wetherholt

ELN is a history of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional, including its primary influences, from its inception as a Marxist/Maoist group inspired by the Cuban Revolution, its leaders trained in Cuba by Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara; the combination of Marxist philosophy with liberation theology; its status as a non-state actor and combatant, including its background and strategic use of guerrilla methodology to conduct its operations; and last but not least, its current trajectory and inherent interests as not just the last remaining major non-state Colombian combatant/guerrilla group, but increasingly something much more dangerous: a force that in actuality has become, under the proverbial radar during the FARC peace process and the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis, what InsightCrime called a "Colombo-Venezuelan rebel army" that complicates not just Venezuelan-Colombian relations, but overall security across the northern half of South America.

106 pages, Paperback

Published August 26, 2021

About the author

K.J. Wetherholt has been influenced by depictions of war since childhood, eventually taking such interests to become involved in International Relations, Human Security and Humanitarian Affairs, including as an SME on modern war.

However, also having grown up among the writers and artists of northern Michigan, she would also take great inspiration from Hemingway's Nick Adams stories, including those about Adams post-WWI, and additionally, later, the WWI writings of Siegfried Sassoon, especially having been moved by Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, having incorporated one of Sassoon's poems, "Aftermath," in the manuscript for The Illumination.

She is Publisher/Executive Editor for MIPJ (http://www.mipj.org) and Humanitas, with an additional initiative launching in May 2022, Discourse: Liberation.

She has also been also a contributor to various publications on media, information, and humanitarian affairs, including The Daily Beast and the Huffington Post.

Depending upon the necessity of varying projects, she spends her time among the United States, Europe, and other locations internationally.