Colombia’s president had a bold peace plan. It is not working

Anthony Colmenares would grab some nappies for his newborn and be home soon, he told his mother in San Cristóbal, a city in Venezuela. That was on July 17th 2019. He did not return. “We started calling, calling, calling,” his mother, Zenaida Basto, recalls tearfully. No reply. Police tracked his phone; the last ping was from near the Colombian border. She says they concluded that he had been snatched by the National Liberation Army (ELN), a 6,000-strong Marxist-Leninist rebel group with a history of kidnappings. Ms Basto believes her son may be alive, held as a forced worker.