The government had announced on Monday that it had concluded a “bilateral” six-month-old ceasefire with five armed groups, including the ELN, with which it is engaged in new peace negotiations.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Hope of peace will have lasted only a few hours. The Colombian guerrilla warfare of the National Liberation Army (Eln, Guévariste) denied, Tuesday, January 3, all bilateral ceasefire with the government in Colombia. “The ELN delegation has not discussed with the government of Gustavo Petro of any proposal for a bilateral ceasefire, so there is still no agreement on this question,” said this Rebellious organization in a press release published on social networks and signed by its “central command”.
Sunday, the government announced that it had concluded a six-month “bilateral” ceasefire with the five main armed groups operating in Colombia, including the ELN, with which it is engaged in new peace negotiations.
“We have repeatedly declared that the ELN only complied with what was discussed and agreed at the dialogue table in which we participate. A unilateral government decree cannot be accepted as [constituent] an agreement “, asserts in its press release the last guerrilla warfare still active in this country.
” Proposal to examine “
“During the last cycle of negotiations which took place in Venezuela and which ended on December 12, only what had been announced (…) was the subject of an agreement”, while “Adjustments have been made to the agenda and submitted for consultation, both to the president [PETRO] and to the central command” of the ELN, explains the latter.
A next cycle of negotiations must take place soon, on a date not yet known, in Mexico, where “it has been agreed to complete the adjustment of the agenda”, still according to the Eln.
“Once we have concluded what is planned, we are ready to discuss the proposal for a bilateral ceasefire and to examine the conditions that will make an agreement possible,” added the extreme left guerrilla warfare, saying “interpret” the government’s announcement “as a proposal to be examined in the next cycle”.