Colombia's government has halted peace talks with the leftist rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN) following an attack on a military base which left two soldiers dead and more than two dozen injured.

"Today the peace process is on hold. Its viability is severely diminished and its continuation can only go ahead with an unequivocal demonstration of peace by the ELN," government negotiators said on social media platform X on Wednesday.

The attack — blamed on the ELN — occurred on Tuesday in a rural part of Colombia's Arauca province, near the border with Venezuela.

Officials said the attackers detonated explosives in a truck at the army base.

Petro's peace policy suffers blow

The decision to suspend peace negotiations is a huge blow to President Gustavo Petro's key policy of "total peace."

Petro's quest for "total peace" has looked to remove the ELN from its role in the country's six-decades-long internal armed conflict.

"This is an attack that practically closes a peace process, with blood," the president said on Tuesday.

There has been no immediate statement from the ELN.

The ELN has stepped up attacks on military targets since August, after it chose to not renew a cease-fire in place from 2023.

Colombia's military has also resumed operations against the rebels.

The suspension of peace talks suggests the reissue of arrest warrants for the guerrilla group's top commanders who, according to the government, are currently based in Venezuela and Cuba.

dvv/jsi (AFP, Reuters)