The top commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN), Antonio García, responded this Friday to the demand made by the Government’s peace delegation to free the kidnapped people held by that guerrilla. Through tweets broadcast on his X account, García said that the organization he leads “complied” by releasing Luis Manuel Mane Díaz, father of soccer player Luis Díaz, who was kidnapped for 12 days. Furthermore, he said: “There is no agreement […] on withholdings, whether economic, political or judicial.”
This Thursday, after the release of Mane Díaz, in which the UN and the Colombian Episcopal Conference intervened, the Government’s Peace Delegation issued a statement celebrating Díaz’s release in good condition, but also pointing out that the plagiarism He plunged the dialogue with the guerrilla into “a critical situation” that implies “making decisions that eliminate the kidnapping.”
Communiqué to the public opinion
The delegation of the National Government at the Peace Dialogue Table with the National Liberation Army, ELN, informs public opinion that: pic.twitter.com/lLHWKlsDtb
— Peace Delegation of the Government of Colombia (@DelegacionGob) November 9, 2023
The delegation, the text continues, will demand in the next meeting that it maintain with its ELN counterpart that all the people who remain kidnapped are also released “in conditions of safety and dignity immediately.” The document, with four points, abounds: “This type of crime causes serious damage to the confidence of Colombian society in the possibility of achieving peace.” The statement adds that the kidnapping is “a great obstacle” to all the understandings that we hope to reach through the dialogues.
Later, the delegation criticizes the economic arguments that the guerrilla has used to justify the practice of kidnapping: “It is unsustainable to argue, from an ethical point of view, that trading in human beings is legal, even under the circumstances of an armed conflict.” . The statement is signed by Otty Patiño, head of the delegation, Iván Cepeda, María José Pizarro, José Félix Lafaurie, Orlando Romero, Adelaida Jiménez, Olga Lilia Silva, Rodrigo Botero, Horacio Guerrero and Rosmery Quintero.
A day later, this Friday, the guerrilla leader questioned, on the same social network: “And how is the Government going to respond for the violations of the ceasefire? Will they continue acting crazy? Next, he added that the ELN will not accept impositions or blackmail: “Don’t get your hopes up.”
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And how will the Government respond to violations of the Ceasefire? Will they continue acting crazy? 🤔
The ELN will not accept impositions or blackmail. Don’t get your hopes up. The ELN will respect what was agreed.
— Antonio García (@AntonioGaELN) November 10, 2023
Kidnapping is one of the most condemned practices and has caused the greatest trauma in the decades of violence that Colombia has experienced. Despite this and the fact that it has been with this Government that the ELN has made the most progress in the dialogues (which it has undertaken, without success, with almost all the Executives for nearly four decades), the guerrilla does not renounce the illegal withholdings with which it is financed and that violate International Humanitarian Law, which indicates the rules of conflicts. Military intelligence estimates that today the guerrilla is holding around 30 people kidnapped, while, according to the Truth Commission, between 1990 and 2018, it was responsible for more than 9,500 kidnappings.
According to data from the Ministry of Defense, until last September, 2023 has been the year with the highest number of kidnappings in a decade. The figures for this crime have returned to the time when the now extinct FARC were still in combat. Tatiana Prada, researcher at the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), warns of the fact that, more than 25 years after one of the bloodiest times of the conflict in Colombia, when plagiarism and miraculous catches were a daily reality, The kidnapping has not disappeared. “The groups have created a narrative to justify their existence and delay their end,” she says.
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