AFP
ELN negotiates humanitarian action with Colombia, fighting FARC dissidents
The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) this Monday identified humanitarian action with the Colombian government in areas affected by armed conflict, while fighting between this rebel and FARC dissidents intensifies. The ELN has completed its fourth round of peace talks in Caracas with the government of President Gustavo Petro, one month after the ceasefire began. “We have reached new agreements that bring us closer to the world everyone wants,” said Otti Patiño, a spokesman for the executive branch, at the conclusion of the talks. In the Venezuelan capital, guerrilla leader Pablo Beltrán issued a “call to continue on the path of a political solution to the conflict.” Headquarters (EMC), the main peace pact dissident group that disarmed guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Marxist) in 2017. The military found the bodies in the municipality of Puerto Rondon (east), near the border. with Venezuela, as well as five injured, including a 14-year-old indigenous woman, according to a video by Arauca Department Governor Wilinton Rodriguez, who did not specify whether the dead and wounded were guerrillas or civilians. The ANO and the dissidents are seeking to negotiate their disarmament as part of a peace process with left-wing President Petr, who is celebrating a year in power. At the end of a new round of talks, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hailed the progress made.” a successful, profitable day of peace for Colombia, the peace of Colombia is the peace of Venezuela, the happiness of Colombia is the happiness of Venezuela, so we are ready to do everything that must be done for the peace of Colombia.” “, – he said in his weekly television program. – Critical zones – The so-called Caracas agreement “sets out the principles and approaches by which we hope that the ceasefire will achieve its humanitarian goal,” according to the text read out at the event. their focus on critical areas,” Beltran said. “It was here that the most attacks on the communities of this denomination were committed. “Humanitarian actions and dynamics will be carried out, guarantees of bilateral, national and temporary ceasefires, community participation in the peace process and social development projects,” he clarified the text, which says that “in the coming weeks” delegations will visit these territories. Petr resumed peace talks with the ANO, which has 5,851 members according to 2022 intelligence, in November 2022, after they were removed from office by his predecessor Ivan Duque (2018-2022) following an attack that resulted in a training camp school killed twenty policemen. “In less than nine months, we managed to agree on a ceasefire, the nature of which should lead us to an end to the armed conflict in Colombia, and not just to the humanization of barbarism,” insisted Patiño, a former guerrilla of the nationalist and urban M-19, the same rebel organization , to which Petro belonged in his youth and which signed the peace in 1990. “Obstacles to this process” – A UN-verified truce was agreed in the previous cycle of negotiations held in Havana and came into effect on 3 August. “We have to check that the ceasefire is respected. fire,” he pointed out to Beltran, however. “Big media, big communications companies are campaigning in the media to create obstacles to this process.” followed. “The assessment we give to these attacks, both in the media and the military attacks on the ground, is that they are caused by sectors that are happy with the structural crisis that the country is going through and do not want changes in the direction of democratization. .” with the ANO was already overshadowed in early August by a complaint from the prosecutor’s office about an alleged plan to kill the head of the prosecutor’s office by the rebels, who denied the accusations and said that it was sabotage dialogue .jt/ag/mbj/ll