He National Government and the Southern Commonersa group supposedly split from the guerrilla group of the National Liberation Army (ELN) operating in the department of Nariño, are seeking to agree on a bilateral ceasefire and to do so they announced this Friday that they will have a “technical table” that allows them to reach that agreement.
This was stated in a joint statement, in which they pointed out that “The parties will begin to work on a technical table that will include“to both delegations, the public force and the Ministry of Defense for “gradually establish protocols to achieve a definitive bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities“.
“As a first gesture of goodwill, Comuneros del Sur commits to suspend kidnappings, the recruitment of minors and the use of antipersonnel mines“the parties said, adding that they will also establish a ‘Effective Monitoring and Verification Mechanism’.
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ELN.
In the document, published after the third session of the ‘Table for the co-construction of territorial peace in Nariño’the parties also announced that they will install the “first territorial concentration zone” before the end of the year, place where 30% of the members of that armed group will be, of which little or nothing is known.
The dialogue of discord
The Government began to approach this supposed split of the ELN – which this guerrilla says are really infiltrated by the Executive to weaken them – at the beginning of the year, which provoked the anger of that armed group and is one of the reasons why the national negotiating table is paralyzed and the ceasefirewhich ended on August 3, has not been renewed.
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ELN
The ELN claims that the Chief of the Comuneros, Gabriel Yepes Mejía, known as ‘HH’ or ‘Samuel’is actually an infiltrator of military intelligence to create the image that the guerrilla is divided, and considers it disloyalty that the Government goes over their heads to negotiate with a front that was part of that group.
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The own Government delegation in the dialogues with the ELN, led by Vera Grabeasked Petro in a letter to clarify with whom he was negotiating.
EFE
