Bogota droop authorized results of ceasefire decree after the nation’s final recognised insurgent group says it did not talk about any bilateral ceasefire with the federal government.
(Reuters)
The Colombian authorities has stated it was suspending a ceasefire it had introduced with the National Liberation Army (ELN) armed group, which denied agreeing to any such truce.
The reversal on Wednesday dampened hopes for an imminent finish to a long time of violence which have continued to plague the South American nation regardless of a 2016 peace pact that led to the disarmament of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had declared on New Year’s Eve {that a} non permanent truce had been agreed upon with the nation’s 5 largest armed teams, together with the ELN, from January 1 to June 30.
The authorities subsequently stated the ceasefire, hailed by the worldwide group, can be monitored by the United Nations, Colombia’s human rights ombudsman and the Catholic Church.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated it “brings renewed hope for comprehensive peace to the Colombian people as the New Year dawns.”
But then on Tuesday, the ELN stated it had “not discussed any bilateral ceasefire with the Gustavo Petro government, therefore no such agreement exists.”
The group added that “a unilateral government decree cannot be accepted as an agreement.”
This prompted the federal government on Tuesday to concede {that a} proposed ceasefire decree had not but been lastly signed.
And on Wednesday, Interior Minister Alfonso Prada informed reporters in Bogota that “we have decided to suspend the legal effects of the decree” in view of the ELN’s acknowledged place.
The authorities referred to as on the ELN to declare a verifiable truce whereas the problem is mentioned at negotiations, the following spherical of that are set to happen in Mexico, Prada stated.
“Only when we have the conditions of the protocols totally agreed can we lift the suspension,” he stated, including within the meantime, the navy and police can proceed their offensive towards the rebels.
Pursuit of ‘complete peace’
Negotiations between the federal government and the ELN, the nation’s final recognised insurgent group, have been beneath approach since November.
A primary spherical of peace talks since Petro got here to energy in August as Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, concluded in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 12 with out a truce being agreed.
Another spherical of talks is because of happen in Mexico, though no date has been set.
Prada stated the problem of a ceasefire can be taken up once more in Mexico.
Tuesday’s ELN assertion stated the group was “ready to discuss the proposal for a bilateral ceasefire.”
In pursuit of Petro’s quest to deliver “total peace” to Colombia, the federal government is providing armed teams “benevolent treatment from the judicial point of view,” Senator Ivan Cepeda just lately informed the AFP news company.
This can be in change for “a surrender of assets, a dismantling of these organisations” and agreeing to cease their “illicit economies.”
According to Petro’s tweet, the federal government had “agreed to a bilateral ceasefire” with the ELN, two dissident splinter factions of the disbanded FARC, the Gulf Clan narco group and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada, a rightwing paramilitary organisation.
The ELN is the one group to have refuted the announcement by Petro, who was himself an city guerrilla member in his youth.
Over 50 years of violence
Negotiations between the federal government and armed teams, which have an estimated mixed complete of 15,000 fighters, have thus far failed to finish the spiral of violence engulfing the nation.
Colombia has suffered greater than 50 years of armed battle between the state and varied teams of left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
The Indepaz analysis institute recorded almost 100 massacres in Colombia final 12 months.
Despite the peace settlement that noticed FARC guerrillas disarm in 2017, armed teams stay locked in lethal disputes over drug trafficking revenues and different unlawful companies, in accordance with the assume tank.
Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer.
The ELN, created in 1964, had introduced a unilateral ceasefire from Christmas Eve to January 2.
Official estimates are that some 3,500 ELN fighters are current in 22 of Colombia’s 32 departments.
Source: TRTWorld and companies
