‘The ELN has no intention of achieving peace,” President Petro said before traveling to Catatumbo.

On Friday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the suspension of peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and accused the guerrilla group of killing several peace signatories of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

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“What the ELN has done in Catatumbo are war crimes. The dialogue process with this group is suspended. The ELN has no intention of achieving peace,” he said before traveling to that region in the northeast of the country.

Earlier, the Ombudsman’s Office reported that an armed confrontation between the ELN and a FARC dissident group had left more than thirty people dead.

“The negotiations are suspended until the ELN definitively decides to pursue peace, because this country can no longer endure these back-and-forths,” said Vera Grabe, the head of the Colombian government delegation in the peace talks.

The two sides had planned to meet next week to reactivate the negotiation table, which Petro’s administration resumed in November 2022 but has been frozen for months due to disagreements between the parties.

“The peace process has gone through different phases, including significant agreements with the ELN, such as the first point on the agenda and advancing a ceasefire. However, since May, the process entered a suspension initiated by the ELN, and despite the government’s efforts, we repeatedly encountered decisions and actions by the ELN that blocked progress,” lamented Senator Ivan Cepeda.

This new suspension comes after recent weeks suggested that talks might resume at a meeting planned following discussions in Caracas in November. During those discussions, Grabe and the ELN’s chief negotiator, ‘Pablo Beltran,’ met for the first time since May 26, 2024.

At the beginning of last year, the Colombian government began engaging with the Southern Communards, a purported splinter group of the ELN operating near the Ecuadorian border.

The ELN, however, claims that this group, led by Gabriel Yepes is infiltrated by the government to weaken the ELN. This has raised concerns within the ELN, which demanded clarification from Grabe and her delegation about whether they were negotiating at a national or local level.

Earlier this week, Peace Commissioner Otty Patiño sent a letter to Beltran indicating that the government would not stop negotiating with the Communards and warning the ELN that the Colombian government’s patience was not unlimited. The letter also subtly referred to continued ELN attacks, including the kidnapping of soccer player Luis Diaz’s father in October 2023 and the attack on a military base in Arauca in September 2024, which left three soldiers dead and nearly thirty injured.

At the time, President Petro described the military base attack as “practically an action that ends the peace process with blood,” though the government delegation later clarified that this meant the talks would be frozen, as the government remained willing to negotiate.

Now, “this military operation being carried out by the ELN, with units moved from the department of Arauca to Catatumbo, aims to have combatants attack the population,” Cepeda said.

“The main victims are civilians, social leaders, and individuals who have laid down their weapons and are in the reintegration process following the 2016 peace agreement. These are war crimes,” he added, underscoring the seemingly irreconcilable divide between the government and the ELN.

teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE

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