The government has offered to cease offensive operations against the ELN if that Marxist group agrees to a cease fire. The government has gotten many of the AUC troops to stop fighting, and is more interested in hammering the larger FARC (which has about 12,000 armed men, compared to 5,000 for the ELN.)
FARC killed the brother of the Education Minister, Cecilia Maria Velez, even though the family paid the ransom twice. Three members of the Education Minister's family have been kidnapped and killed.