The National Liberation Army (abbreviated as ELN, Spanish: Ejército de Liberación Nacional) was a Peruvian guerrilla group.
Hector Bejar [1], one of the military commanders of the ELN, later summarised it as an attempt to create a "free association of revolutionaries" and "an army which would draw combatants together regardless of their ideologies or political affiliations".
[1] Following their collapse, Bejar remarked that one of their core mistakes had been not liaising and keeping communications open with larger revolutionary movements that could have supported them as they were attacked by the Peruvian Army; instead, they had opted to believe they could remain self-sufficient and rely on local recruits from the villages and plantations.
[9] Thru a twist of fate, the government of Peru discovered and smashed a communist conspiracy hatched in Cuba that was designed to set this country aflame with guerrilla warfare, terroristic activities, and sabotage.In January 1963, a group led by the 21-year-old poet Javier Heraud and Alain Elias crossed through Bolivia, where they picked up weapons and entered southern Peru.
It formed the Javier Heraud Brigade as their main column and moved into the densely forested foothills of San Miguel in April.
[7] In June 1965, the ELN seized the Runateullo hacienda and destroyed the bridge on the Satipo highway that led to it, attacked a local mine, and assaulted the Andamarca [es] police station.
[16] That summer, Guillermo Lobaton led a group of ELN militants who attacked an Army Ranger encampment, capturing weapons and supplies; it was this action which first publicised the name of the Javier Heraud Brigade.
[1] The Carillo brothers, who owned the estate which extended over a large area of the La Mar Province, were alleged to have been cruel to their indentured and unpaid workers, frequently whipping and imprisoning them, and, in one January 1963 instance, to have strangled and beheaded a tenant farmer who objected to their seizure of his livestock.
[1] On December 17, the army made substantial contact with the group near Tincoj and the ensuing firefight left three militants dead, including Edgardo Tello.
[7][11][18] He served five years in prison for sedition before being pardoned by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, who took power in 1968, and requested that Bejar work on reforming land policies with the government.