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The negotiations that Bogotá and the self-styled National Liberation Army (ELN) are carrying out in Cuba in search of an eventual peace agreement are “on hold,” said the head of the delegation of the illegal armed group, ‘Pablo Beltrán ‘, who alluded to a “crisis” in the process. The ELN indicated that it halted the talks in response to statements by President Gustavo Petro, who questioned the unity of command of that guerrilla and referred to the links with drug trafficking.
New setback in the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN).
From Havana, Cuba, where the talks between the two parties are taking place, the chief negotiator of the illegal armed group, Israel Ramírez, alias ‘Pablo Beltrán’, assured that the process had entered a “pause”.
“The dialogue table has entered into a crisis and clarity is required on the part of the Government so that the path towards peace is cleared and we speak with a coherent language to the country and the world,” said the Central Command of the ELN in a statement issued on Monday, May 15.
Statements ratified by ‘Pablo Beltrán’ in a video in which he indicated that the movement decided to put the process on “pause” as a way of rejecting a speech by President Gustavo Petro. The president pointed out to the group -considered a terrorist by the United States and Canada, among other governments- of maintaining links with the illicit business of drug trafficking.
“We have the ELN negotiating, but it does not mean that the guard has been lowered against its illicit economy. It must be destroyed”, were Petro’s words at an event organized by the Military Forces, on May 12.
According to the movement’s negotiator, the group “has practiced a categorical demarcation” of drug trafficking, for which reason the pronouncement of the head of state would have been “disrespectful”, by “ignoring” the actions carried out by both the ELN delegation and the ELN itself. team representing the Government and those accompanying the dialogue process. Among them, the Catholic Church and the United Nations (UN).
“If the president comes and tells the generals that we are a non-political group, like the Clan del Golfo, then the whole negotiation is ruined,” emphasized the guerrilla chief negotiator.
But with his words, President Petro, a former member of the extinct M-19 guerrilla, would also have tried to pressure the ELN to cease hostilities, questioning its “revolutionary character”, highlights the Colombian press.
“The ELN has changed, it is not an insurgent group like before, it is fighting territory for the illegal economy (…) The fronts are autonomous, they are federal, they all revolve around the illegal economy, they have little to do with Father Camilo Torres”, were other of the president’s statements in the same speech that angered the self-styled National Liberation Army.
Bogotá reaffirms the “legitimacy” of the ELN for the peace negotiations in Cuba
At a time when the two parties are going through the most intense hours after the rectification demanded by the ELN as a condition for resuming talks, the Colombian Presidency office responded with a statement in which it ratified the “legitimacy” of the ELN negotiating team in the dialogue table, but also required him to show signs of change.
Bogotá indicated that it recognizes “the existence of negotiations and dialogues of a political nature with the ELN.” and added that “the declarations of the last days are a call to both parties to be responsible with the dynamics of the armed conflict and with what is happening in the daily life of the territories.”
Likewise, the Government maintained that “it is imperative that we respond to the (affected) communities and establish a cessation of hostilities between all parties to the conflict, protection measures for civilians and the participation of civil society as key pillars.”
Francia Márquez advocates prioritizing the population
Separately, Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez also called on the ELN to “advance towards total peace.”
“Colombians, the victims, the communities in those territories are crying out for us to be able, as human beings, to resolve these differences through dialogue and allow them to live without fear, to live with a guarantee of rights,” he declared.
This is not the first clash between the Petro government and the ELN. At the beginning of last January, the two parties staged a disagreement that occurred when the Executive announced a ceasefire with that guerrilla without it having been previously agreed at the negotiating table.
Both parties advance the third cycle of dialogues in which they try to mitigate the violence after six decades of internal armed conflict and after the signing of a peace pact, in 2016, between the Government of the then president, Juan Manuel Santos, and the now extinct FARC, the once largest guerrilla in the world, although the authorities currently face groups of dissidents.
With AP, EFE and local media
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