(EFE).- The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, this Saturday asked the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to “work seriously” for a ceasefire and showed his willingness to grant political status to that group.
“We want to give the ELN that political status but recognizing the new reality. To that extent, I propose that we seriously work on a ceasefire. That they stop killing each other, that it be a cessation of hostilities to society,” Petro said in a meeting with spokespersons from peasant and ethnic organizations of the Pacific Coast in the municipality of Olaya Herrera, in the department of Nariño (southwest).
The president’s statements come after the ELN delegation, which is negotiating a peace agreement with the government in Cuba, accused Petro of “stigmatizing” that guerrilla by referring to the “illicit economy.” Petro called the day before for a “forceful strategy” against the “illicit economy” and assured that “it is necessary to close the tap so that these groups do not buy more weapons and swell their ranks.”
The president’s statements come after the ELN delegation, which is negotiating a peace agreement with the government in Cuba, accused Petro of “stigmatizing” that guerrilla
However, the ELN negotiators considered that the president’s words were “direct questions” and implied “disrespectful and stigmatizing treatment of our organization.”
“It supposes a fundamental questioning of the political sense of the Dialogue Table and its entire architecture, including the legitimacy of the Government Delegation, the guarantor countries, the accompanying organizations (UN and the Colombian Episcopal Conference) and the accompanying countries,” he stated. that guerrilla
In the statement, the ELN asked Petro “urgently” to define “if your government continues to consider that, as stated in the Mexico Agreement signed by the parties and deposited with the guarantors, this is a serious political process.” .
The president, for his part, proposed to the ELN leaders “to start working on the idea of a territorial peace.” He also said that if they accepted his proposal, the State could enter those areas “and demonstrate that it is possible to change one economy for another and that the combatants themselves could take over the decisions and benefits of this new loyal economy that can be built together for the prosperity of the territory”.
Contacts between the Colombian government and the ELN began in 2017 in Quito under the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos, who had just signed peace in 2016.
The bilateral ceasefire and the participation of civil society in the peace process are two of the three issues scheduled for this third cycle of dialogues that the Cuban capital has been hosting since the beginning of May. The third topic is humanitarian relief.
Contacts between the Colombian government and the ELN began in 2017 in Quito under the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos, who had just signed peace in 2016 with the now demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The following year they continued in Havana, also the headquarters of the previous process with the FARC, but they were suspended by President Iván Duque in 2019 after the ELN attack against a cadet school in Bogotá.
The dialogues were resumed last year, with the arrival of the current Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.
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