2023-08-12 07:01:00
The express meeting between President Gustavo Petro and prosecutor Francisco Barbosa took place in the Casa de Nariño amid tensions and puyas on both sides.
This time both came to the table shaken by an alleged attack that the National Liberation Army, ELN, would be planning, and that would put the life of the prosecutor himself and other figures at risk, such as the former Army commander, General (r) Eduardo Zapateiro, and the uribista senator María Fernanda Cabal.
In addition to the turbulent political and security environment that the country was already going through due to this classified information, Barbosa arrived at the meeting angry about a series of government comments that seemed to “lower the cane” of the plan to assassinate him.
Indeed, the high commissioner for peace, Danilo Rueda, insinuated that said information could have been invented by people who intend to destabilize the peace process that the Petro government is carrying out with that guerrilla. Textually, Rueda assured that “the attribution of the ELN” could “be involved in a process of sabotage that begins with sectors that have traditionally been against peace and in favor of war.”
After that message, Barbosa came out in a rage to say that Rueda’s words were “miserable” and increased the risk for him and his family. But not only that. In those same interviews this Friday morning, the prosecutor also assured that the head of state had not called him at any time and that he regretted that because “it is not normal” that a president does not rule on such serious events.
Thus, everything seems to indicate that the president not only responded to Barbosa’s “ear pull”, but also left Rueda’s comments without effect, who has been one of his trusted men since the government began.
Petro did not support Rueda
After this avalanche of criticism of the Government, it was President Petro himself who summoned the prosecutor to a meeting in his office, which took place before noon and lasted just under 20 minutes.
Barbosa entered with his security scheme and left a while later without photos and without statements; What was known was that both spoke of the high commissioner for peace – whom Barbosa has harshly criticized in recent months – and that Petro made it clear that he supports Barbosa and will take threats to his security seriously.
“The national government will provide all the protection required and requested an investigation from the competent entities as quickly and exhaustively as possible to determine the seriousness of the facts,” Casa de Nariño said after the meeting.
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The attack and the dialogues
While these tensions calm down, the Ministry of Defense and the other authorities work to establish the origin of this information and what risk Barbosa, Cabal and Zapateiro face, the three alleged targets of the ELN.
According to information from the Attorney General’s Office, three external sources confirmed an alleged plan at the hands of alias “el Rolo”, a guerrilla fighter who apparently coordinated the entire plan from Venezuela.
For now, the Mechanism for Monitoring and Verification of the ceasefire assured that they are analyzing “rigorously and in accordance with the established protocols” all the information that suggests possible violations of the measure.
If offensive actions by the National Liberation Army were to be confirmed, said Mechanism, made up of the UN Verification Mission and the Catholic Church, would be in charge of announcing the violation and suggesting possible corrective measures.
For now, the ELN has maintained its position that it is not planning any attack against these characters and that everything is a plan to destabilize the ceasefire and the negotiations.
In fact, the negotiations have followed their normal course after the complaints. As announced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, it is expected that on August 14 the delegations of the Petro Government and of that guerrilla will install what will be known as the fourth cycle of negotiations.
Said space will be given from Caracas, Venezuela, and will seek to specify the participation of the community, a key point that this guerrilla has set as a condition and that seeks for society to establish its limits and needs.
Even with all this, the prosecutor issued a statement at the end of the afternoon in which he assured that “despite the seriousness of the denounced facts, he ratifies his commitment to the peace process with the ELN and to total peace,” but He asserted that the investigations against the members of the guerrilla group will continue.
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