National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels killed 9 Colombian troopers in an assault close to the border with Venezuela on Wednesday, threatening ongoing peace negotiations between the federal government and the rebels.
The assault, one of the severe in current months, passed off in a rural space of El Carmen municipality in Colombia’s Norte de Santander province, an necessary area for rising coca and producing cocaine.
Colombia’s president “summoned” authorities peace negotiators after the daybreak assault.
Gustavo Petro in a Tweet stated the perpetrators of the assault had been individuals “still absolutely far from peace,” 5 months into negotiations with the ELN.
The nation’s first-ever leftist president issued a “total repudiation” of the assault and known as authorities negotiators for “a consultation,” together with guarantor nations.
“A peace process must be serious and responsible towards Colombian society,” the president stated.
Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez stated Petro known as the talks “to examine this truly serious event” he certified as “an attack on peace.”
Ahead of the assembly with Petro, Colombian peace commissioner Danilo Rueda wouldn’t rule out suspending negotiations after the occasions he stated “shun the construction of peace.”
“Healthy decisions will be made for the country,” he informed reporters.
‘Total peace’
Army chief Helder Giraldo stated the troopers had been patrolling one of many nation’s largest oil pipelines, steadily focused by the ELN.
They had not been deployed in an offensive capability.
Most of the troopers had been younger males of their 20s performing obligatory army service, officers stated.
Giraldo stated the army would conduct “operations in the area against those responsible.”
Colombia has suffered greater than half a century of armed battle between the state and varied teams of left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
Fighting has continued regardless of a peace deal that noticed the FARC guerrilla group disarm in 2017.
With armed teams disputing profitable drug trafficking revenues and different unlawful companies, the Indepaz analysis institute reported practically 100 massacres in Colombia final yr.
The authorities resumed peace talks with the ELN, thought of the final energetic guerilla group in Colombia, after Petro took workplace final August pledging to carry “total peace” to the violence-riddled nation.
Talks with the ELN had been suspended by Petro’s conservative predecessor Ivan Duque following a automobile bomb assault on a police academy in Bogota in 2019 that left 22 individuals lifeless.
The ELN has taken half in failed negotiations with Colombia’s final 5 presidents.
‘Surrender’
On New Year’s Eve, Petro introduced a truce had been agreed upon with the nation’s 5 largest armed teams, together with the ELN, from January 1 to June 30.
The others had been two dissident splinter factions of the now-disbanded FARC, the Gulf Clan narco group and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada, a rightwing paramilitary group.
The ELN, nevertheless, instantly refuted any such deal, forcing the federal government to backtrack.
Hostilities continued and the military reported a number of assaults on its members by the ELN.
Last September, FARC dissidents killed seven cops within the central division of Huila.
Several ELN fighters have additionally been killed and captured in army operations in current months.
Earlier this month, the federal government suspended its truce with the Gulf Clan — the nation’s largest drug cartel — over assaults on civilians and uniformed personnel.
Colombia’s opposition steadily criticizes the president for concessions he’s prepared to make for peace.
“‘Total peace’ cannot mean surrender of the country” to legal teams, Petro’s defeated rightwing rival Federico Gutierrez stated on Wednesday.
Talks with the ELN had been held in Caracas and Mexico City, with one other spherical on account of be held in Cuba, although a date has but to be introduced.
Earlier this month, the 2 events agreed to carry ceasefire talks as effectively.
Founded in 1964 by commerce unionists and college students impressed by Marxist revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara and the Cuban revolution, the ELN counts on about 3,500 fighters.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
