Bogota Colombia).- the guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN) confirmed this Wednesday that although in the next round of negotiations with the Colombian Government the bilateral ceasefire will be addressed, they are not willing to allow “media pressure” to mark the times and issues of an already “agreed” agenda.
The ELN has explained that there is a dialogue process underway, with an “agreed agenda”, which will be at that negotiating table where those issues present at it will be discussed and that they will not participate in the “game” of “media pressure”.
“There are some agreed protocols and norms that must be respected”, the ELN has settled in a statement, in which they come up against criticism for their alleged lack of interest in negotiating with the Government after the latest attacks, which they have stressed , were justified in response to the actions of the Army.
Thus, it has indicated that before the end of 2022, after the first negotiation table in Caracas, they sent the Government their “considerations” about the offensives that the Army was carrying out in their areas, but “unfortunately, there were no effective responses and they continued to military offensives.
“By logic and the inertia of the conflict, our military actions must be analyzed in the same way that the operations of government forces are analyzed, it is common sense,” claimed the ELN, which also rejected the version that there would be disunity between the different fronts of the group in relation to these dialogues.
“Here there is no imposition, but deliberation and construction of political consensus (…) Everyone from the commander ‘Antonio Garcia’ and the commander “Pablo Beltran” As the whole of the Central Command and the entire Command, we will comply with what was directed to the dialogue delegation,” the armed group remarked.
“Colombia can be sure that our interest is to work for a Colombia in peace, with transformations, so that it is more democratic, more equitable and fair,” the ELN remarked to end the statement.
Negotiations with the ELN
With the arrival of the president, Gustavo Petro, At Casa Nariño, initiatives were promoted to negotiate with some of the armed groups that have been operating in Colombia for half a century. The first to show a predisposition was the ELN, the last guerrilla standing, not counting the dissidents of the extinct FARC.
The Government and the ELN began the first cycle of negotiations between November and December 2022 in Caracas, Venezuela, with a bilateral ceasefire as the main agreement reached, although the guerrillas later disregarded it, alleging that it was a proposal that it had not yet been reviewed.
Already in 2023, this was one of the points that was addressed in Mexico City, although without apparent success, as shown by the fact that the ELN continues to attack military installations and infrastructures of energy multinationals. Now it is expected that this issue and political participation will be the issues to be discussed in the third round of talks scheduled to begin on April 26 in Havana.
Source and photo Europa Press
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