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Colombia - Political Flags - Part II

Last modified: 2015-01-17 by zoltán horváth
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Editorial Remark: It must be noted that all the opinions are of the authors and not of FOTW. Our site is non-political and concentrates only on vexillological issues.


See also:


Independent Democratic Pole (Polo Democrático Independiente)


party flag
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 October 2007


plain flag
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 October 2007


current logo
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 October 2007


previous logo
image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 October 2007

PDI (Polo Democrático Independiente, or Independent Democratic Pole): A broad coalition of leftist movements, it is a legal democratic party in Colombia. Its official website is <www.polodemocratico.net>.
E.R., 23 March 2005

At El Tiempo newspaper, a photo appeared on September 11, 2007. It features a PDI sympathizer waiving a PDI flag outside an election post back in 2003.
The Party's current is shown at Vivir En El Poblado (Living at El Poblado, a local newspaper of the Neighborhood El Poblado, in the city of Medellin, showing the CV's of political candidates aspiring to the 2007 ellections.
E.R., 14 and 23 October 2007


Indigenous Social Alliance Movement (Movimiento Alianza Social Indígena)


image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 November 2007


image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 November 2007


image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 November 2007

The ASI was established in June 1991 during an Assembly held by the Yaguará natives in the Municipality of Chaparral. There are several leaders from Cauca, Tólima and Antioquia. They currently have political representation at different levels in different Municipalities and Departments.
Source: <vivirenelpoblado.com>
E.R., 4 November 2007

New name and Flag

The ASI has changed its name to Alianza Social Independiente during an Extraordinary Convention held between January 28 and 29 of 2011, through voting.
Sources: http://www.asicolombia.com/index.php/nuestro-partido/historia
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alianza_Social_Independiente
The new flag is the logo in a white circle, in the middle of the flag, which is a rectangular flag divided into three equally sized stripes (yellow on top, green on the middle and red on the bottom) as seen here (flag on the left).
Source: http://www.asicolombia.com/index.php/20-asi/comunicados/225-el-partido-alianza-social-independiente-asi-rechaza-el-asesinato-del-presidente-del-concejo-municipl-de-puerto-asis
There is a variant, which is the same logo on a white horizontal flag, as seen here.
Source: http://www.unidadnacional.com.co/noticias/alianza-social-independiente--asi--adhirio-a--juan-manuel-santos-presidente-
For additional information please refer to ASI (official website)
Esteban Rivera, 07 January 2014


Liberal Opening Movement (Movimiento Apertura Liberal)


logo
image from <www.aperturaliberal.com>

The Movimiento Apertura Liberal was establsihed in January 1993, by the congregation of four councilmen from the city of Cúcuta and was recognized officially by the C.N.E. on July 24, 1997. It currently has representation in diferent Departments and cities at diferent levels.
Source: <www.aperturaliberal.com>
E.R., 12 November 2007


Liberal Revolutionary Movement (MRL - Movimiento Revolucionario Liberal)


image by Eugene Ipavec, 17 July 2007

MRL (Movimiento Revolucionario Liberal), was founded by Alfonso López Michelsen in 1959. The MRL lasted from 1959 until 1966, achieving several seats in Congress and also some victories on the Sate and Local level, when it returned to the Colombian Liberal Party mainstream in an agreement to accept several changes propoesd by the MRL dissident leader.
The MRL flag is the plain Colombian Liberal Party flag plus the capital white initials MRL and can be seen at b/w picture that appeared on El Tiempo newspaper as a slideshow depicting the life and achievements of Alfonso López Michelsen
E.R., 17 July 2007


Los Pepes

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]
image by Jaume Ollé and Eugene Ipavec, 29 July 2007

An armed illegal group created in 1992 was called "Los Pepes" (Pepes stands for PErseguidos por Pablo Escobar, or Persecuted by Pablo Escobar). This was a mixture between Escobar's former Medellin Cartel associates and Cali Cartel rivals, who, after Pablo Escobar was interned in La Catedral prison in 1992, he (Escobar) started to murder his closest Medellin Cartel associates. Thus, this anti-Escobar alliance proved helpful for Colombian authorities when this organization started to hunt his lawyers, Escobar's relatives, associates, hideouts, properties, bodyguards, and tip the Colombian legal authorities with valuable information. Los Pepes disbanded later in 1993, but this was somehow the main core out of which the current AUC (right wing armed illegal organization) emerged.  
Source: photo at SEMANA magazine - November 30th, 1998 (caption of the photo (translation): When Los Pepes came out in the open we applauded them. We almost issued t-shirts saying 'we support Los Pepes' - Words by Mr. Joe Toft (Director DEA Colombia back then).
E.R., 16 June 2005


M19 Movement


based on Encyclopaedia Universalis
image by Ivan Sache, 10 December 1998


based on photo at SEMANA Magazine
image by Eugene Ipavec and Ivan Sache, 28 August 2005


based on photo (see below)
image by Eugene Ipavec and Ivan Sache, 28 August 2005


logo
image by Eugene Ipavec, 28 August 2005

Vertically divided blue/white/red, with M-19 in black in the white stripe.
Source: Photography of the funerals of the murdered past-leader of M-19 Carlos Pizarro, flag over the coffin. (Encyclopaedia Universalis, Yearbook 1991, p. 40).
Ivan Sache, 10 December 1998

According to  Courrier International #711, 17 June 2004, M19 is the 19 April Movement, founded on 19 April 1970, mostly by students. The M19 entered the armed struggle against the Columbian government in 1973. On 6 November 1985, the M19 seized the Court of Justice in Bogota. The seizure ended in a bloodbath when the tanks of the Columbian army attacked the Court. In 1989, the M19 abandoned the armed struggle and joined the political legal life. His leader was murdered when candidate to the Presidential election in 1990.
Ivan Sache, 27 December 2004

Here is a photo of Additional flag (variant with a logo showing a map of Colombia with the sword of Colombia's liberator Simon Bolivar and with the motto "Por el pueblo con las / armas al poder" (For the people with the / arms to power). Also here is a photo from SEMANA Magazine of a variant with different letter styles.
E.R., 23 March and 17 June 2005

Information taken from <www.country-data.com>:
"The 19th of April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril--M-19) traces its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of April 19, 1970, in which the populist party of former military dictator Rojas Pinilla, the National Popular Alliance (Alianza Nacional Popular--Anapo), was denied an electoral victory (see Opposition to the National Front , ch. 1). Although Anapo--which was subsequently led by Rojas Pinilla's daughter, María Eugenia Rojas de Moreno Díaz, following the dictator's death in 1975--denied all links with the M-19, the organization proclaimed itself to be the armed branch of the party. During the early 1970s, Carlos Toledo Plata and Jaime Bateman Cayón distinguished themselves as the M-19's principal leaders and ideologues. Toledo, a physician, was an Anapo representative in Congress. Bateman served as the M-19's principal commander for military operations. Both these men died during the 1980s--Toledo in a shooting by two men believed linked to the MAS and Bateman in an airplane crash. By mid-1988 Carlos Pizarro León-Gómez had emerged as one of the group's principal decision makers.
The M-19's ideological orientation was a mixture of populism and nationalistic revolutionary socialism. This orientation often led the group to seek political support from Nicaragua and Cuba, but the M-19's leadership also claimed that it resisted forming permanent foreign ties.
By mid-1985, when the number of active members was estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000, the M-19 had become the second largest guerrilla group in Colombia. According to the IISS, the size of the M-19 in 1987 was estimated at 1,500 militants. A member of the Barco administration who was in charge of the government's peace efforts, however, calculated that the organization had only 500 armed militants nationwide. By the mid-1980s, the M-19 had eclipsed all other guerrilla organizations in urban operations. The M-19 reportedly established columns (units) in each of Colombia's major cities. These columns were in turn organized into independent cells.
Although the M-19's early operations, begun in 1972, were limited to bank robberies, it quickly gained national attention through the 1974 theft of Simón Bolívar's sword and spurs from the exhibit in the liberator's villa. Two years later, the group kidnapped and subsequently murdered a Colombian trade union official the M-19 accused of having ties to the United States Central Intelligence Agency. In 1977 the M-19 began a campaign of economic sabotage. The following year, government offices and police stations became the targets of numerous attacks. In addition, the offices and representatives of United States-based multinational corporations were repeatedly targeted in an effort to drive the foreign interests from the country. Kidnappings of prominent individuals continued, some of which resulted in the deaths of the abductees. In 1980 the seizure and occupation, for sixty-one days, of the Dominican Republic's Bogotá embassy gained the group international attention.
The M-19's increasingly bold activities, coupled with evidence of Cuban training and logistical support, prompted a hardening in the policies of the Turbay administration during its final year in office. In 1982, however, the newly installed Betancur administration offered political amnesty in exchange for the M-19's agreement to a cease-fire. In July 1984, government officials and guerrilla leaders signed a cease-fire agreement at Corinto in Cauca Department.
By late 1985, however, the accord unraveled. Charging the government with, among other things, a systematic violation of the truce provisions and failure to implement key political reforms that were part of the cease-fire agreement, the M-19 returned to armed struggle. In October 1985, guerrillas wounded then-Commanding General of the Army Samudio. By far the most spectacular operation of the M-19 came the following month, when commandos seized the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. The ensuing battle between the M-19 and the military left over 100 dead, including 11 Supreme Court judges (see Interest Groups , ch. 4).
After the Palace of Justice operation, the M-19 reduced its activities, leading some analysts to surmise that its membership base had declined. In early 1986, the M-19 reportedly attempted to establish a common guerrilla front with members of Peru's Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru) and with Ecuador's Alfaro Lives, Damn It! (¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo!) group. The March 1987 killing of Alvaro Fayad, the M-19's top political and military strategist, was believed to have dealt the organization a severe setback, however.
In May 1988, the M-19 again burst into public prominence by kidnapping Alvaro Gómez Hurtado, a two-time presidential candidate and Conservative Party leader. Gómez Hurtado's release was obtained two months later in exchange for the government's agreement to meet with M-19 leaders at the papal nunciature in Bogotá. The meeting was to have paved the way for a national summit to include representatives of the country's principal guerrilla groups. Barco subsequently announced, however, that he would not send an official representative to the preliminary peace talks." (Data as of December 1988).
from <www.tkb.org>:
"Current Goals: The M-19 essentially ceased to exist in 1990. M-19, under intense pressure from the Colombian government's security forces, as well as right-leaning paramilitary groups, agreed to a ceasefire and shortly after laid down its arms permanently to become the Colombian political party, Democratic Alliance M-19. Predictably, some members rejected the cease fire, formed new terrorist groups, and continue to wreak violence and death throughout Colombia.
E.R., 8 May 2005

AD M-19 Movement

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]
image by Eugene Ipavec, 29 July 2007

Here is the flag of the former leftist group when it laid down arms. The group transformed into the AD M-19 (Alianza Democrática M-19, or Democratic Alliance M-19).
E.R., 23 March 2005


Marcha Patriótica

During April 21, 22 and 23, 2012 a massive demonstration took place in Bogotá, during the so called launching of this new sociopolitical movement called "Marcha Patriótica" (Patriotic March). Sometimes refered to as "Movimiento Político Marcha Patriótica" (Patriotic March Political Movement) , "Marcha Patriótica por la Segunda y Definitiva Independencia" (Patriotic March for the Second and Defnite Independence) and "Movimiento Político y Social Marcha Patriótica" (Political and Social Movement Patriotic March), it is established as they called themselves "the new left" and "a progressist movement", with the purpose of bring about change to the current political agenda and its disconformity with several actual measures that the government (elected in 2010) has taken so far, as their political manifesto
expresses:
http://www.marchapatriotica.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=476:declaracion-politica-movimiento-politico-marcha-patriotica&catid=37:en-la-marcha&Itemid=55

However this movement has its roots on a similar rally that took place  on July 20, 2012, the Bicentennial of Colombia's independence from Spain, and is already being labeled as a legal political support for the ilegal Farc guerrilla, that leads to a negotiated end of the current armed conflict, similar to the Entramado de ETA (ETA's Surroundings, refering to the cluster of social and political organizations that this Spanish illegal armed group has established to support its activities and have a legal front). One of the similarities with Farc, is the logo used by Marcha Patriótica
Source: http://pupsocvalle.blogspot.com/2010/06/marcha-patriotica-y-cabildo-abierto_3457.html, which is similar to that used by the Movimiento Bolivariano
Sources: http://www.lasillavacia.com/historia/marcha-patriotica-la-nueva-izquierda-que-nace-con-un-estigma-32748
South Moluccas, First flag
http://m.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/articulo-339131-ejercito-insiste-farc-quieren-fundar-partido-politico
and http://www.eltiempo.com/opinion/columnistas/josobduliogaviria/zona-franca_11593403-4

It is composed of (among a grand total of claimed 1.471 organizations nationwide including trade unions, indigenous people, etc.):
- ACVC (Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra, Peasant Association of the Valley of the Cimitarra River) (official website: http://prensarural.org/acvc/ )
- FEU (Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios, Federation of University Students) (official website: http://feucolombia.org/ )
- Teatro la Candelaria (La Candelaria theater) (official website: http://www.teatrolacandelaria.org.co/ )
- Congreso de los Pueblos (Congress of the Peoples) (official website: http://congresodelospueblos.org/ )
- Minga Social y Comunitaria - Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas (official website: http://www.nasaacin.org/minga-social-y-comunitaria)
- COMOSOC (Coalición de Movimientos y Organizaciones Sociales de Colombia, Coalition of Social Organizations and Movements of Colombia) (official website: http://www.comosoc.org.co/ )
- Dissidents of the Polo Democrático Alternativo
- Coordinadora Nacional de Movimientos y Organizaciones Sociales y Políticas (National Coordination of Social and Political Movements and Organizations) (official communiqué)
- MANE (Mesa Amplia Nacional Estudiantil) (National Broad Student Board) (official website: http://manecolombia.blogspot.com/ )

The two driving forces behind this new movement are:
- Izquierda Liberal en Marcha (Liberal Left Forward) a movement within the Partido Liberal
- Partido Comunista Colombiano

The flag is a white horizontal flag with the logo in the middle as seen in the following pictures:
- http://www.arcoiris.com.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/marcha_patrioticados.jpg (Source: http://www.arcoiris.com.co/2012/04/ecos-de-la-marcha-patriotica/)
- http://www.elespectador.com/files/imagecache/560_width_display/images/201204/7c16d6dd755dbcde1834c2d309189dbf.jpg
, http://www.elespectador.com/files/imagecache/560_width_display/images/201204/7f53b307fbc46a1959ba8f5238700f5c.jpg
and http://www.elespectador.com/files/imagecache/560_width_display/images/201204/b89a1774797908de1e4e59f90185dc81.jpg
(Source: http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/bogota/galeria-340672-multitudinaria-movilizacion-de-marcha-patriotica)
For additional information go to: Marcha Patriótica (official website):
Esteban Rivera, 25 April 2012


MIRA Movement (Movimiento MIRA - Movimiento Independiente de Renovación Absoluta

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]
image from official website

The Movimiento MIRA was established on July 26, 2000. > This movement is already featured on FOTW. It has political representation at various levels and > different Departments.
Source: Screenshot of official website.
E.R., 3 November 2007


MOIR - Independent Revolutionary Workers Movement (Movimiento Obrero Independiente y Revolucionario)


image by Santiago Tazon, 2 September 2000

Thousands of workers and students marched on the US embassy and other places in Bogota and Cartagena de Indias, protesting because Clinton's visit. They fly several red vertical flags of MOIR (Movimiento Obrero Independiente y Revolucionario) - Independent Revolutionary Workers Movement. MOIR is a Colombian political (communist) party.
Santiago Tazon, 2 September 2000

This party was established in Medellín in 1971 as a result of the action of former members of the defunct Maoist MOEC (Movimiento Obrero Estudiantil y Campesino - Workers, Students and Peasants Movement). Its youth section is called th JUPA (Juventud Patriótica, Patriotic Youth).  
For more information see MOIR Official website and wikipedia.
 E.R., 15 July 2007


image by Eugene Ipavec (based on original by Jaumé Ollé), 3 September 2007

Jaumé Ollé reported in 2004 on a variant of the MOIR flag.
 E.R., 3 September 2007

Patriotic Youth (JUPA - Juventud Patriótica)


image by Eugene Ipavec (based on original by Jaumé Ollé), 3 September 2007

There is also the youth section of the MOIR party, the Juventud Patriótica (JUPA), or Patriotic Youth in English
 E.R., 3 September 2007


Movimiento Civismo en Marcha

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]
image by Eugene Ipavec, 13 December 2005

There was an illegal organization in Colombia known as "El Cartel de Medellín" (Medellin Cartel). It was also known in its beginings as "Los Extraditables". However, this was some kind of umbrella organization that participated in many illegal activities such as narcotics, assassinations, bribery, racketeering, terrorism, "dirty politics" (corruption, etc.). This flag was used by a political movement called "Movimiento Civismo Unido" also known as "Movimiento Civismo en Marcha". This was a liberal-oriented political party headed by drug lord Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (a.k.a. El Patrón, a.k.a. El Señor) which started in the outskirts of Medellin to erradicate poverty, build soccer fields and build houses as well (most of this through money laundering derived from narcotics trafficking) and it was his political platform to run for Congress as Member of the House of Representatives (lower chamber). He actually was elected as the second Representative of Jairo Ortega (another liberal) for the Department of Antioquia. So when Ortega was absent Escobar took his place in Congress (shortly afterwards his ties with drugs escalated a war that had already started and he was forced to step down and the manhunt began...). This episode became what is known as Colombia's Drug War (1984-onwards) although drug trafficking had been around since the 1970's. Pablo Escobar was shot dead on December 2nd, 1993 on a raid by the Colombian Police, by Colonel (then Mayor) Hugo Heliodoro Aguilar Naranjo (now the Governor of the Department of Santander), who led the final assault on Escobar's safehouse in Medellin. The image is a snapshot of the documentary "Los Archivos Secretos de Pablo Escobar" (Pablo Escobar's Secret Files) by Marc Beaufort, released on February 13, 2004, produced by Centauro Films, with the help of Escobar's family and close relatives. There is a little insight on the documentary which can be found at <www.elcolombiano.com>.
The flag itself is divided into three equal horizontal stripes and the colors are green (top), white (middle) and red (bottom). In the middle it has a red disc (very similar to the Japanese flag) and also three flags (one green with a white tree and another green flag with a book, the third flag being white with a red heart on it.
E.R., 7 June 2005 and 30 November 2005

The three depicted flags seems to be:  
- Black flag with white open book centered
- White flag with red stylized heart (like the playing card suit "hearts") centered
- Black flag with white tree at the fly.
Probably flagoids standing for some "virtue" each. Perhaps education, peace, and environment?
António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 December 2005

Actually the name is Movimiento Civismo en Marcha, as I verified today searching the web.
Source: Semi official website of the Documentary "Los Archivos Secretos de Pablo Escobar".
E.R., 4 June 2006

In recent news published by the newspaper El Colombiano on its online edition of July 30, 2006, some pictures of this political movement are shown. For example at <www.elcolombiano.com/20C--1.pdf>, one can see the name of this political movement on a banner on the main stand where Pablo Escobar is giving a speech, one can see the emblem of the movement (a tree, and a book) right next to the person managing the sound.   At <www.elcolombiano.com/C--2.pdf> one can see a standing person with a moustache wearing a t-shirt bearing the emblems of the political movement.
 E.R., 2 September 2006


National Guerrilla Coordinating Board/Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board


image by Jaume Ollé


image by Jaume Ollé

This is the review on the (CNG - CGSB) taken from <www.tkb.org>:
"Mothertongue Name: Coordinadora Guerrillera Simón Bolívar (CGSB). Base of Operation: Colombia.
Founding Philosophy: In the 1980s, several leftist terrorist organizations in Colombia created an umbrella organization, from which to coordinate negotiations with the Colombian government and to coordinate certain terrorist activities. The National Guerrilla Coordinating Board (CNG), formed in 1985, was the forerunner to a broader coordinating board. In 1987, CNG was reconstituted as the Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board (CGSB). CGSB was created as a unified front for the terrorist-organization members. While CGSB engaged the government in negotiations, the terrorist members simultaneously held onto their rebel-controlled areas and remained willing, at varying levels, to commit terrorist attacks. The Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board was comprised of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), April 19 Movement (M-19), National Liberation Army (ELN), Popular Liberation Army (EPL), Workers' Revolutionary Party (PRT) and the Quintin Lame Command.
CGSB participated in a series of government talks in the early 1990s. The talks were jeopardized several times by terrorist attacks of the FARC and ELN. Despite the continuing aggression of the two largest terrorist groups, CGSB did achieve limited success. Resulting from government negotiations, M-19 put down its arms in 1990. EPL's main body followed step, ceasing its operations in 1991. However, Colombia's largest leftist terrorist organizations, FARC and ELN, did not reach a settlement with the government and continue terrorist operations to this day. In fact, while some groups seriously negotiated for an end to hostilities, other elements of the CGSB continued to perpetrate terrorist attacks, claiming attacks both under the umbrella of CGSB and as individual terrorist groups.
Current Goals: The Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board (CGSB) disbanded in the early 1990s. While certain CGSB factions ceased terrorist operations in the early 1990s, the FARC and ELN remain significant terrorist organizations".
E.R., 23 March 2005


National Liberation Army (ELN - Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional)


image by Ivan Sache, 23 Febuary 2002

The flag of Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional is at <www.eln-voces.com>. The flag and emblem of ELN is explained by the organization in this site.
Dov Gutterman, 8 March 1999 and Jaume Ollé, 19 April 2001

From <www.tkb.org>:
Mothertongue Name: Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). Base of Operation: Colombia.
Founding Philosophy: The ELN is a Cuban Revolution-inspired group, heavily influenced by the early actions and theories of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. The ELN emerged following the overthrow of the Cuban government by Guevara and Castro in 1959. The National Liberation Army was founded by two distinct groups. The first group comprised of urban, left-wing intellectuals with strong ties to rural farmers. They co-founded the group with a radicalized group of oil sector unionists from Barrancabermeja's oil industry. Radical members of the Catholic clergy joined the group in late 1965. This was the first time that Christians and Marxists had joined together in a Colombian revolutionary movement.   The ELN's unique founding philosophy strongly emphasized socialism, mixing Castro-ism with the liberation theology of the Catholic Church. More concretely, the ELN's self-appointed role was to represent the rural poor and decrease the foreign presence in Colombia. The ELN's goal was to take power from the Colombian government and replace it with a more egalitarian "popular democracy" that would represent all Colombians equally under the law. The ELN strongly opposed foreign investment, in part due to its location in an oil-rich area and its connections to trade unionists in the energy sector.  
The Colombian Department of Administrative Security estimates that in 1998 alone, the ELN obtained U.S. $84 million from ransoms and U.S.$255 million from extortion. Employees of oil companies constitute a large percentage of the ELN's targets. The kidnapping and extortion of oil company employees is ELN's primary source of income. This is a natural legacy of ELN's formation in an area rich with oil wells and oil companies. A third, more recent source of income is the collection of a "property" tax from coca and poppy cultivators. It is not known whether the collection of property taxes is a centralized or decentralized activity.  
Current Goals: Throughout its history, the National Liberation Army steadily gravitated towards violence and armed struggle as a means to attain a socialist Colombia. At the ELN's 1996 national conference, the group decided to decrease emphasis on creating a purely socialist Colombia. Instead, the ELN has returned to its founding objective: popular democracy for all Colombians, propagated at the local level. The ELN has not given up the use of violence in its efforts.
E.R., 23 March 2005

I found another version of the ELN's flag at <www.ejercito.mil.co>. The ELN uses sometimes their Coat of Arms on their red/black flag,
E.R., 8 and 16 June 2005


Variants

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]
image by Eugene Ipavec, 17 August 2008

There is another version of the armed group called ELN at Army's official website at news article dated June 2005. Motto in white ring is "NI UN PASO ATRAS - LIBERACION O MUERTE" (Not one step back - Liberation or death). There is another curved inscription above the ring that is unreadable.
E.R. and Eugene Ipavec, 31 August 2006

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]
image by Zoltan Horvath, 18 May 2014

During a recent video one can see a white flag with the logo (on the left) of the ELN. This is a variant of the already reported flag.
Esteban Rivera, 18 May 2014


National Liberation Army- Camilista Union


image by Jaume Ollé

The National Liberation Army- Camilista Union, (ELN-UC), insurgent group in Colombia, uses also Black & Red flag and generally, with the abbreviations of the group on the division of the stripes in yellow letters. Given the bonds of ELN with Cuba, it's possible that the ELN's flag is based fundamentally on the one of "July 26' Movement".
Carlos Thompson, 30 September 2004


image by Jaume Ollé Casals posted in I Love Flags, 29 December  2012

The called "Pérez the Priest", famous Catholic father and leader of the Ejército Nacional de Colombia, born in Aragon, deceased in March 1998. In an archival image we can see the Curate Perez with a flag that seems to be from a mass organization supported by the guerrillas: The Unión Camilista. Probably the name is derived from the first leader of the guerrilla, another catholic father, Camilo Torres.
Jaume Ollé Casals, 29 December  2012


Socialist Renovation Movement (CRS - Corriente de Renovación Socialista)


image from <www.cedema.org>

The ELN has had over the past years several breakaway factions. One of the most important ones was the Corriente de Renovación Socialista (CRS, Socialist Renovation Movement). It emerged during the peace talks between the leftist guerrillas and the Colombian government in the early 1990's. It appeared officially in 1991, and it acted mainly in the Departments of Sucre, Córdoba and Bolívar. It also signed a peace agreement on April 9, 1994.
Source: <www.mediosparalapaz.org>.
E.R., 19 February 2007


image by Eugene Ipavec,

I found a PDF document with important information on the CRS. In it you can see pictures of armed fighters wearing the new version of the demobilized CRS flag and logo (on pages 129, 133 and 134 of the document). It has three white letters CRS, on the tricolour flag resembling the Colombian flag.
E.R., 14 September 2007