2024-02-14 03:01:00
The guerrilla of ELN and the main dissidence of the Farc They break the agreed truces in peace talks with a wave of violence in western Colombiamediators and authorities denounced this Tuesday.
The Ombudsman’s Office and the Catholic Church joined the rejection of the government, which described Monday as “disloyalty” the onslaught of organizations in the Pacific region that forces thousands of farmers to confine themselves.
The guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in negotiations with the leftist government Gustavo Petro in Cuba, announced on Friday an “indefinite armed strike” in the department of Chocó – with an Afro majority -, despite the bilateral ceasefire that has been in force since August.
“We no longer know, from our role of accompaniment (of the Catholic Church), what to do because We really feel that there is a mockery, that there is no firm word“, the bishop of Istmina (Chocó) alerted Blu Radio this Tuesday. Mario de Jesús Álvarez.
“Disloyalty”
“It is a disloyalty to the agreements” of the sixth cycle of negotiations in Havana, in which the truce was extended until August, said the priest, who denounced a climate “of great anxiety and great anguish” among residents.
Along the same lines, the peace commissioner, Otty Patinoquestioned the will for peace of the ELN and the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident of the FARC with which the government has been in dialogue since October.
Although a truce was agreed until July, the EMC carries out armed actions in Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Nariño. “The ceasefire is not a permit for the commission of crimes and even less against the population”asserted Patiño.
In contrast, the Minister of Defense, Ivan Velasquez, said on Monday that “the report is that there is tranquility” in Chocó, although he asked the communities not to move. The Army stated that it would report the ELN to the UN ceasefire monitoring mechanism, but that the situation was under control.
“It is a pressured tranquility because there is an immense group of people who are confined and another group of displaced people, how can we say tranquility if they cannot move?”Monsignor Álvarez questioned.
Petro, the first leftist in power in the country, is betting on a final negotiated solution to six decades of conflict, after the historic 2016 peace agreement that disarmed the bulk of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
The country is experiencing an armed conflict fueled by drug trafficking that in more than half a century has left 9.5 million victims.