GUNMEN ATTACK CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION IN PERU, LEAVING AN OFFICIAL DEAD AND CHILDREN INJURED, AND IN COLOMBIA, AN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY OBSTRUCTS AN ARMY OPERATION, ENABLING ELN TO ABDUCT SOLDIERS
- Senior Editor
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
December 18-24, 2025 | Issue 49 - SOUTHCOM Team
Jacob Fields, Valentina Gonzalez, Candela EcheverrÃa, Jacob Robison
Clémence Van Damme, Senior Editor
Â
Bullets Left at the Crime Scene[1]
Date:Â December 18, 2025
Location: Sausal, Ascope Province, Peru
Parties involved: Â Peru; authorities; Ascope provincial government; municipal councilwoman murdered in the attack Elena Rojas Alcalde; officials; preferred candidates; Gunmen; criminal networks; seven wounded individuals; citizens in western Peru; children; local criminal gangs
The event: Gunmen opened fire during a Christmas celebration, killing Rojas and injuring seven others, including children.[2]
Analysis & Implications:
The orchestrated killing will likely compromise the perceived legitimacy of the Peruvian electoral system among citizens in western Peru. Rojas’ murder will likely expose vulnerabilities in political officials’ protection capabilities, likely elevating public distrust in the power of legal safeguards, such as assigned security details and enhanced criminal charges for attacks against officials. This lack of legitimacy in the safeguards will likely lead civilians in western provinces, such as Callao, to question whether the provincial government or local gangs hold true authority, very likely increasing their perception that actors have compromised the electoral system. The belief that this system is decaying will likely discourage citizens from participating in future elections, as the loss of preferred candidates will likely increase perceptions that their votes are ineffective.
The attack in Sausal will likely expose the limitations of child protection frameworks that exclude public-space violence, preventing authorities from recognizing how attacks like extortion and contract killings in areas where many children reside systematically undermine their safety. This exclusion will likely mean that even as violence patterns reveal identifiable risk factors, authorities will likely not use these warning signs for prevention because legal frameworks do not address this issue among children. Without updates to frameworks that acknowledge public-space violence as a child protection concern, persistent exposure of children to attacks will likely increase the normalization of violence, eroding the boundaries that distinguish threats from daily life. This normalization will likely lead to higher recruitment of children into illicit activities, as the absence of protections creates conditions where criminal networks capitalize on populations already desensitized to violence.
Date:Â December 21, 2025
Location: La Puria, Choco Department, Colombia
Parties involved: Colombia; Colombian government; National Army; military personnel; 18 abducted soldiers; indigenous communities; indigenous peoples in Choco; 200 indigenous people that facilitated the abduction; civilians; civilians networks; armed groups; Colombian leftist paramilitary group National Liberation Army (ELN); ELN leadership; ELN militants
The event: 200 members of an indigenous community obstructed a National Army operation against the ELN, allowing militants to abduct 18 soldiers.[3]
Analysis & Implications:
The attack will likely weaken the military’s perception of a separation between the indigenous peoples in Choco and the ELN, very likely compromising the special protection of these communities. The military will likely associate locals with armed groups' hostile activities, likely increasing suspicion and stigmatization as a precaution against civilian collaboration in the national conflict. These category-based assumptions will likely transform how the military interprets indigenous special protection over time, likely increasing intrusive security and coercive control within indigenous civic spaces in Choco. This shift will likely accelerate the militarization of inhabited zones, increasing the risk of disproportionate use of force against indigenous peoples and eroding long-term civilian protection guarantees under international humanitarian law.
The seizure of military personnel will likely embolden ELN to expand operations beyond their current strongholds, increasing the frequency of coordinated militant actions. The support from indigenous communities will likely give ELN leadership a sense of elevated operational security, enhancing their coordination with civilian networks and easing their expansion into areas where they lack control, such as Cudinamarca. This expansion will likely reinforce the validity of ELN’s civilian strategy, incentivizing operational diversity through elevated confidence and perceivably reduced deterrence as the government will likely struggle with civilian involvement. The increased operational complexity across Colombia will likely ease ELN’s ability to elevate the frequency of their attacks and nonviolent interruptions, such as abductions, demanding a wider dispersion of military resources.
[1]Â Murder, generated by a third party database
[2]Â Shock in La Libertad after armed attack in Christmas hot chocolate event: hitmen kill councilwoman and leave several children injured, Infobae, December 2025, https://www.infobae.com/peru/2025/12/19/conmocion-en-la-libertad-tras-ataque-armado-en-chocolatada-navidena-sicarios-asesinan-a-regidora-y-dejan-varios-ninos-heridos/Â (translated by Google)
[3] New attack against the Army leaves 18 soldiers kidnapped in Chocó amid an operation against the ELN, Semana, December 2025, https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/nueva-asonada-contra-el-ejercito-deja-18-soldados-secuestrados-en-choco-en-medio-de-una-operacion-contra-el-eln/202558/ (translated by Google)