2023-11-10 13:48:14
In an interview with La W, the government’s chief negotiator with the ELN, Otty Patiño, referred to the release of Luis Manuel Díaz and criticized the option raised by the Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, regarding opening the discussion on an eventual financing option for the armed group to stop committing kidnappings and other crimes.
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“That is an unfortunate comment, it must be said, because we have said that we are not going to discuss any issue of financing, let’s say an issue of non-kidnapping blackmail. We are not going to discuss financing issues if we are not calling for the end of the conflict and if it is not viewed with a really strong and determined will not to continue fighting. Neither the international community nor the state will admit it,” said Patiño.
Likewise, he continued: “I have told you, well save, let’s say you have resources that are the product of other illegal activities, as long as you do not have a determined will to reach the end of the conflict,” he expressed.
The government’s chief negotiator also expressed that the crime of Luis Manuel Díaz will lead the kidnapping victims to play a more decisive role in the continuity of the dialogues due to the “pressure” for the ELN guerrilla to recognize the seriousness of that crime and free the victims. He noted that the negotiation cycle in Mexico will take place.
“We have to continue and of course it is the first major topic of the dialogues that we must have with the ELN (…) it is an initial topic in the next meetings that we are going to have with the ELN. We would have liked to have an extraordinary meeting, but the ELN’s times are slower than what one would like,” said Patiño.
Furthermore, he pointed out that kidnapping is precisely one of the delicate discussions within the Ceasefire Verification Mechanism, because for the ELN such a crime is not a violation of the ceasefire and does not violate international law either.
“They have refused to consider the kidnapping as a crime that violates IHL, so that creates the situation that the kidnapping, three months following the ceasefire, there is supposed to be a report from the Mechanism, this was complicated due to to what happened,” he said.
Additionally, he ruled that he does not have any information regarding whether the kidnapping of Luis Manuel Díaz was committed by common crime and then handed over to the ELN. He also described the alleged payment by the Díaz family to the ELN as “false” and intended to dirty “the process.”
“The delay was due to a verification that the ELN requested and made of the area where the release was going to take place,” he said.
“The kidnapping is the first big issue that we will have to talk to the ELN”: Otty Patiño
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