BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia on Friday suspended for second time in lower than a yr peace talks with the Nationwide Liberation Military, or ELN, after blaming the insurgent group of the violence that has been affecting a northeastern area of the nation in current days.
“The dialogue course of with this group is suspended, the ELN has no will for peace,” President Gustavo Petro mentioned on his X account.
The ELN has been preventing with ex-rebels of the previous Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group, or FARC, on a area near the border between Colombia and Venezuela generally known as Catatumbo.
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Not too long ago the ELN has been spreading into rural areas deserted by the FARC, the big insurgent group that made a peace cope with Colombia’s authorities in 2016.
On Thursday, a former FARC chief blamed the ELN of killing no less than 4 demobilized members of the group. Authorities have mentioned that they’re investigating different deaths.
“What the ELN has dedicated in Catatumbo are warfare crimes,” mentioned Petro, with out giving extra particulars.
Colombia’s authorities suspended peace talks with the ELN final September after blaming it of killing two troopers and injured greater than 20.
Peace negotiations with the ELN started in November 2022 after Petro took energy as the primary leftist president and he additionally launched talks with different armed teams below a coverage generally known as whole peace.
The ELN, which was based within the Sixties by union leaders and college college students impressed by the Cuban Revolution, has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Colombia and Venezuela and funds itself by drug trafficking and unlawful gold mines.
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Observe AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
