Talks resume on Monday. The guerrillas insinuated that Petro wants to include drug traffickers in total peace.
The tensions between the ELN and the Government do not stop escalating a few days following the start of the second cycle of talks in Mexico.
After an emergency meeting in Venezuela to calm the “crisis” due to the failed bilateral ceasefire, the head of the government delegation, Otty Patiño, and the top commander of that guerrilla, Antonio García, have attacked each other and even They have threatened to leave the negotiations at the same point they were under the government of Iván Duque: suspended and with significant setbacks.
The criticisms are from both sides, but those coming from the Central Command of the ELN, Antonio García and Pablo Beltrán, the guerrilla’s chief negotiator, tend to be more incendiary.
Recently, the Elenos criticized the total peace of Petro, assuring that they wanted to put them in the same bag as narco-paramilitary bands such as the Clan del Golfo, a fact that is not entirely true because they, as an insurgency, were sheltered under a political figure, a This status is not shared by armed groups such as the Clan, the Segunda Marquetalia and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
The origin of the fight
Despite the fact that the negotiating table was set up in record time and progressed successfully in the first months of President Gustavo Petro’s government, those giant steps were slowed down by an announcement by the head of state in which he assured that he had agreed to cease the bilateral fire with five armed groups, including the ELN.
Barely three days following that announcement, the guerrillas went out to rectify the president and assured that they had not been contacted for that decision and that the “unilateral impositions” of the Casa de Nariño had gotten the negotiations into a crisis that had to be dealt with. exit carefully.
The problem escalated so much that Patiño called an emergency meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, to calm things down and shield the start of the second cycle of talks in Mexico.
And it worked. Both delegations left that meeting on January 18 happy and agreed to meet once more in Mexican territory to, now, decree a bilateral ceasefire built by both parties.
The truce did not last a month
But the effects of that reconciliation did not last long. The National Liberation Army soon became angry once more and published at least three articles on its website strongly criticizing the total peace policy of this government.
García summed it up on his Twitter account: “It seems that “total peace” is committed to other businesses. The peace process with the ELN cannot be used as an “umbrella” for unclear issues. (…) The government has not been in tune with what was agreed in the Roundtable, if the ELN continues to be considered GAO, it means that we are still at the same point that Duque left, that is, we are not taking off as it should be ”, asserted.
However, the strongest of those statements came out this Thursday. In a statement titled “Peace and social forgiveness,” the guerrillas criticized the alleged visits by the president’s brother, Juan Fernando Petro, offering benefits in prisons.
“Did drug traffickers and corrupt people make underworld agreements with the President’s brother? (…) The similarities between Total Peace and the Ralito Pact, through which the Government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), tried to give political status to the narco-paramilitaries, where large drug lords also slipped, So, are we facing a Ralito 2.0?”, concludes the statement.
To all this, the Government has shown prudence and has responded little. Of all the attacks, the only one who has come out to respond was Otty, who assured that “Antonio García” has not understood total peace and that, if he wants to do politics, do it without weapons
