Bogotá (EFE).- The ceasefire is pointed out as the key piece of the Colombian government to continue negotiating peace with the ELN guerrillas, whose willingness to dialogue was called into question this week after the attack that left nine soldiers dead in the convulsive Catatumbo region (northeast).
Negotiations are in crisis, according to the government, which is asking the guerrillas to clarify if they are using the peace talks to strengthen themselves or if they have a real desire to put an end to the armed conflict.
That is why both the head of the negotiating team, Otty Patiño, as well as the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, and the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, stressed this Friday the need to finalize a ceasefire as soon as possible with the National Liberation Army (ELN), which justified the attack by claiming that this measure is not in force.
“The bet is to agree to a cessation and a de-escalation. It is not possible to continue building peace scenarios in the midst of force. The strength that it demonstrates, in some way, is weakness,” said Rueda in an interview with the institutional station Colombia Hoy Radio.
Patiño, meanwhile, has pointed out all week the need to create confidence and said that the negotiating team is raising the urgency of agreeing to a ceasefire to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The Government questions the ELN
There is a “great challenge” about whether “the ELN is using the talks to strengthen itself in its territories, as an organization, or if, on the contrary, its stay at the table means a real vocation for peace,” Patiño said after a meeting tonight with Petro, the negotiating team and representatives of the international community to assess the future of the talks.
However, the Government does not intend to get up from the negotiating table, which has already been held for two rounds, one in Caracas and another in Mexico City, and the third will take place after Easter in Havana.
In the attack with explosives and rifle shots in Guamalito, a township in the municipality of El Carmen in the department of Norte de Santander, two non-commissioned officers and seven soldiers who were doing their military service were killed, and nine other soldiers were injured.
The ELN has justified the attack by stating that it “has the right” to attack the State security forces because a bilateral ceasefire has not been agreed upon in the peace negotiations.
However, Commissioner Rueda pointed out that the guerrillas must respond to the communities they claim to defend and said that the ELN has to act “consistent with its purposes and political ideals.”
“Nothing justifies with or without a cease (to the fire) this type of situation that generates despair in Colombian society, but which particularly affects the inhabitants of all these territories who are fed up with violence,” he said.
Assuming the consequences
Minister Prada, who is the government’s spokesman, today sent a message to the guerrillas and told them that if they continue challenging the Colombian people, the government will respond, as it did with the Clan del Golfo during the mining strike that paralyzed the region this month. of Bajo Cauca (northwest).
“For good reason, we are doing very well, but if what they do is challenge the Colombian people, we are ready to proceed as the president has already ordered with other actors,” Prada said.
The senior official pointed out that decisions must be made and put as possibilities that, for example, continue “at the table demanding compliance with the bilateral ceasefire with the immediate adoption of protocols.”
“Another measure is simply to get up from the table and understand that we cannot negotiate under criminal attacks on our public forces or any Colombian in the territory. Any possibility is on the table, ”he explained.
Along the same lines, Rueda assured that “the use of force is unnecessary.”
“The bloodshed of soldiers, police, peasants, Afro or indigenous people or any inhabitant is useless. That is an ethical position”, added the high commissioner for peace.
Candlelight for the assassinated soldiers
On the other hand, groups of soldiers and civilians lit candles this Friday to pay tribute to the nine soldiers killed in Norte de Santander.
The vigil took place in military garrisons in Bogotá, Medellín, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Popayán, Villavicencio, Valledupar and Florencia.
In these tributes, the soldiers showed the photographs of their murdered comrades, lit candles and brought flowers to remember them.
