ABSTRACT
The revolutionaries in Cuba believed that other Latin American regions were ripe for the revolutionary process, and plans developed to “export” the revolution. Though the ELN has never operated on the national level, the revolutionaries did garner significant support among young Colombians, particularly during the 1960s. The ELN formed for reasons unique to Colombia’s history, though certainly the movement was inspired by Fidel Castro’s successful revolution in Havana. The most famous recruit of the ELN was the Roman Catholic priest, Camilo Torres Restrepo, who joined the organization in October 1965 and died in combat against the Colombian army on February 15, 1966. La violencia took the lives of 200,000 citizens—mostly peasants—and altered the course of Colombia’s twentieth century history; it suggested that state power might yield to armed vigilante groups who exerted local “justice” on a stage the size of the Colombian nation.
