The Colombian government reaffirmed the “legitimacy” of the delegation of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to sit at the dialogue table, after the guerrillas criticized accusations by President Gustavo Petro and said that the talks in Cuba were “in crisis.”
“The dialogue table has entered into a crisis and clarity is required from the Government so that the path towards peace is cleared and we speak a coherent language to the country and the world,” the ELN Central Command said in a statement. whose delegation is in Havana, where a third round of negotiations with the government began on May 2.
The guerrillas are dissatisfied with some statements that Petro made last week in a meeting with the admirals and generals of the Armed Forces, where he questioned the leadership of the guerrilla commanders.
«Do they command? Do they really rule? The ELN today has another logic. They try to accommodate, but the other logic is different, the fronts are federal. It has little to do with Father Camilo Torres (…) his raison d’être is illegal economies, “said the head of state at the time.
The ELN criticizes President Petro for “stigmatizing” the guerrillas
The ELN questioned that these words “publicly interrogate our delegation, its representativeness is questioned, therefore the Government must publicly clarify if it is a valid interlocutor to advance the peace process with the Government.”
Government response
In this sense, the Colombian Presidency also responded this Monday in a statement acknowledging “the existence of negotiations and dialogues of a political nature with the ELN” and assured that the Government “is serious and consistent with the constant plea of the communities to cease the violence in the territories”.
“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,” said the Presidency.
In addition, he alleged that he wants to “continue moving forward” to respond to the communities and establish “a cessation of hostilities between all parties to the conflict, some measures to protect the population and the participation of civil society as central axes.”
“Our commitment to peace cannot be postponed and each action that leads to it will be a priority for us,” considered the Colombian Presidency, which called on the ELN to “be consistent” with that invitation.
#Release on the negotiating table with the National Liberation Army (ELN) pic.twitter.com/L2ZZjorivv
– Colombian Presidency ?? (@infopresidencia) May 15, 2023
This is the third time that the dialogue table established last November in Caracas has entered into crisis. The first bump was suffered just after the government announced on December 31 a bilateral ceasefire that had not been agreed upon at the negotiating table and that the ELN was quick to deny.
The second clash occurred due to the attack last March, after the second round of negotiations in Mexico, when the guerrillas killed 10 soldiers in an ambush in a hamlet in the municipality of El Carmen, in the department of Norte de Santander, against soldiers of the Special Energy and Road Battalion No. 10.
Both delegations are in the middle of the third phase of the talks that bring them together in Havana in this round, and it is hoped that this new crisis will be addressed there and a ceasefire can be reached.
