After the recent ELN attacks on military and police bases, President Iván Duque, from Cartagena, sent a message to the armed groupwarning that he will continue to defend the institutional framework.
“Yesterday we saw a cowardly attack on some garrisons in our country. Once again the ELN acts with cowardiceDuke said.
“But they are not going to take away our ability to act against their criminal structures,” the president added.
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Duque also highlighted the defense of his Government against the armed group, “we have faced terrorism with determination and it is our duty to make it absolutely clear that we have encouraged this terrorist groupnot only the hardest blows in decades, but for the first time we have achieved the extradition for drug trafficking of several members of that group”.
“Since this government began we have told the ELN that we would evaluate a process of dialogue with them, however, for 17 months they murdered more than 100 people, committed more than 400 acts of terrorism and kidnapped more than a dozen people”, declared the president.
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“There is no will for peace there and we ask them to put an end to the criminal acts.”
The head of state stressed that “we have responded to this barbarity with the forcefulness of the institutions and we have also responded to drug trafficking with the largest seizures in history, the dismantling of laboratories and of course with more than 138 extraditions.”
