The National Government urged the ELN guerrillas to express their true intention for peace in front of the Colombian people, following the acts of violence that occurred this week in the Catatumbo region, in which nine soldiers were assassinated.

This was announced by the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, at the conclusion of a working meeting called by President Gustavo Petro with the members of the government’s negotiating team at the dialogue table with the ELN, which took place in the Bolívar Hall of the House of Nariño.

“It is not with more deaths of any Colombian or any Colombian that peace is consolidated. The National Liberation Army has in its hands an immediate responsibility to generate hope in Colombian society. We hope that they listen to the Colombian people, that they listen to the communities. This Government of Change offers that space and those possibilities,” the Commissioner emphasized in a statement to the media.

In this regard, the Head of the government’s negotiating team with the ELN, Otty Patiño, reiterated the call to the ELN: “Before this third cycle (of negotiation, in Cuba) begins, a clear response is absolutely necessary, so that we know what stick to the intentions of the ELN, in relation to this process”.

Commissioner Rueda affirmed that the ELN as a whole must be consistent with what is being negotiated at the dialogue table, because the communities in the territories are tired of the belligerent actions of that guerrilla, and in this sense there must be a response from the peace delegation regarding whether or not it represents this entire armed organization.

“The answer has to be given by the National Liberation Army. Whether the peace delegation, as they have told us, represents them all or not, because you cannot sign an agreement like the Mexico agreement and simultaneously have a message like the one that was recently received,” he asserted.

Communities, in permanent anxiety

In the same context, the Commissioner added: “And it is fair, from those territories, that the communities are absolutely tired of this type of demonstrations, of armed strikes, in a situation of permanent anxiety due to this type of actions and decisions that are not consistent with what is done at the dialogue table”.

In this order of ideas, Rueda stressed that “nothing justifies, with or without cessation, this type of situation that generates despair in Colombian society, but which particularly affects the inhabitants of all these territories who are fed up with violence.” .

Likewise, the Commissioner indicated that the National Government is willing to listen to the communities that demand “listening scenarios” to “immediately share their concerns, their initiatives for peremptory and demanding humanitarian agreements from all parties, but in particular from the ELN. ”.

In addition, he admitted that the Dialogue Table with the ELN is going through a crisis as a consequence of the events in Catatumbo.

Source: Presidency of the Republic

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