The leftist guerrilla group ELN is said to have planned an assassination attempt on Colombian attorney general Francisco Barbosa Delgado despite the ongoing peace negotiations, Colombian authorities said.

Investigators from military intelligence, the police, and the judiciary received this information from three independent sources, the South American country’s attorney general’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the sources, five ELN leaders met in Venezuela in July to plan Mr Delgado’s assassination.

According to the findings, snipers were to be trained in the neighbouring country to carry out the attack.

A six-month ceasefire between the Colombian government and the ELN began in early August.

Peace negotiations were expected to continue in the coming months.

After taking office a year ago, Colombia’s new President Gustavo Petro, an ex-guerilla fighter, restarted the peace process.

The previous Colombian government under conservative President Iván Duque broke peace talks with the ELN in January 2019.

It was carried out after a bomb attack on a police academy in Bogotá that killed 22 people.

Colombia suffered a 52-year-long civil war between left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, and the military, leaving 220,000 people dead and millions more displaced.

The security situation in Colombia had improved following a 2016 peace agreement between the government and the largest left-wing rebel group, FARC.

But other rebel groups or criminal organisations control parts of the country. 

(dpa/NAN)