The main armed group, the National Liberation Army, denounced the agreement to cease hostilities announced on Saturday by power.
by Marie Delcas (Bogota, correspondent)
In Colombia, confusion around a cease-fire agreement between the government and the most important of the armed groups in activity, the National Liberation Army (ELN), denounced shortly after being announced by the Power on New Year’s Eve evening of December 31, 2022, threatens to turn into a political crisis. The UN, the Catholic Church, human rights defenders and the left had had time to publicly welcome the six -month truce, involving all the parties concerned, and made public by Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president. “The bilateral cease-fire is suspended, said Interior Minister, Alfonso Prada, the armed forces and the police, said in the morning in the morning in the morning and their offensive capacity in the morning of the National Liberation Army. “
On Saturday December 31 at 10:45 p.m., President Petro reported a bilateral cease-fire with the five main armed organizations in the country. Before Tuesday morning, the ELN management announced in a statement that its officials had “discussed any proposal for a bilateral ceasefire with the government”. And to recall that the ELN respects only “what has been discussed and agreed at the dialogue table”.
The reaction, then, was lively in the ranks of the opposition, which accuses from the Colombian president of improvisation, even of lie. Indignation is all the more lively since, according to the Cambio information portal, the military also learned the existence of the ceasefire through a tweet by Gustavo Petro. “Neither the soldiers nor the ELN were aware of the ceasefire announced by the president, it is not a joke,” quips the right-wing senator Paloma Valencia, before seriously emphasizing “that he would have could have deaths “.
perplexity
For Humberto de la Calle, now Senator, President Petro made a serious mistake. “A guerrilla warfare is what she is. But if you decide to negotiate with her, you must play a great game,” explains the senator, who was chief negotiator of the peace agreement with the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia ( Farc) in 2016.
The supporters of Mr. Petro find it difficult to hide their perplexity. How could the head of state have decree and announce a bilateral cease-fire without the agreement of the interested parties? Wednesday morning, it was surrounded by the High Commandment, the Minister of Defense and the High Commissioner for Peace that Mr. Prada gave a press conference.
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