The ELN will not allow the tone of total peace to be imposed. Tensions between these left-wing guerrillas and the government of Gustavo Petro continued after the ELN attack on a rural army base in the early hours of last Wednesday, in which nine soldiers were killed and eight wounded. The event prompted the immediate rejection of the president and government negotiators, who called for an emergency meeting with the guerrilla negotiators Friday night to reach a bilateral ceasefire. This termination will not come for the time being. But some photos of guerrillas in the attack zone, the north-eastern region of Colombia called Catatumbo, were released on Monday, sparking outrage among Colombians.
One of the photos published this Monday shows an ELN guerrilla patrol in the town of Versalles, in the municipality of Tibú, posing with six minors. The participation of minors in guerrilla events may constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. There was also widespread disapproval two months ago when it was revealed that dissidents from the 36th Front of the extinct FARC had danced with children at a rural school in Yarumal, north of Antioquia, where educational institutions are specifically protected by IHL.
This Monday, the mayor of Tibú, Nelson Leal López, confirmed to the newspaper El Tiempo that the guerrilla patrol taking photos with children was briefly in Versailles this weekend, “a quick presence, they stocked up on groceries and left,” explained. He added that these patrols move through the area due to the lack of “presence of state institutions”. He was referring not only to the army but also to others such as the ombudsman’s office or the prosecutor’s office. “We reject this presence [del ELN]without a doubt,” he clarified.
The Presidency has not ruled on the photos, although President Petro shared them when responding to Uribista opposition Senator María Fernanda Cabal, who accused the President of “handing over the country to the ELN.” “You led the country to violence, we want to lead it to peace without ingenuity,” Petro replied, prioritizing the response to the political struggle over the humanitarian situation.
The government you supported, Maria Fernanda, doubled the territory controlled by the ELN and the Gulf clan and created the dissidents. Now we correct the course. You led the country to violence, we want to lead it to peace without ingenuity. https://t.co/QcXbtHLDll
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 3, 2023
The ELN has not yet commented on the photo, but released a statement on the attack on the army’s rural base over the weekend. His tone is very different from that of the government struggling for a ceasefire. The guerrillas justified their actions with their “right of defense” even though the military group was not conducting an offensive action but guarding an oil pipeline.
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The ELN’s argument is that the army continues to attack its members this year despite Petro declaring a ceasefire in December – a move that went awry as that ceasefire had not previously been agreed through dialogue. The ELN says not only that they are responding militarily because the “military forces are maintaining an offensive,” but that the military is doing so “jointly with narco-paramilitary forces.”
In the statement, however, they insist they maintain their willingness to “work and achieve a bilateral ceasefire, their respective protocols, and oversight and verification mechanisms.” This would happen in the next cycle of negotiations, the third since talks began, which will take place in Havana, Cuba. The exact date for this next cycle has not yet been determined.
The ELN statement also ensures that Commander Pablo Beltrán, part of the dialogue table, has the acknowledgment of all ELN structures. This clarification will be made after, in another communiqué this weekend, the western front of this guerrillalocated mainly in the Department of Chocó, reiterated: “We are not positive about this peace process and have more questions and uncertainties every day.”
On that last point, Senator Iván Cepeda, chief negotiator at the government table, told Caracol Radio that the suspicion of one of the negotiating fronts “had not surfaced in the talks until now and should be the subject of clarification”. the ELN. “Because it’s not normal for one of the groups or one of the war fronts to announce that they are distancing themselves from these dialogues,” Cepeda added.
The left senator insisted that in the third cycle of talks they hope to reach a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN guerrillas. “If that doesn’t happen, we will judge [qué hacer] about this situation because it is difficult to move dialogues forward without being able to create the conditions that give the country credibility and trust,” said Cepeda. “So it’s difficult to maintain a conversational process,” he concluded.
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