Bogotá, Sep 18 (EFE).- The Colombian government confirmed on Wednesday that peace talks with National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas have been suspended following a deadly attack against a military base in Arauca, which Bogotá blames on the group.
A handout photo made available by the Colombian Army communications office of soldiers in the vicinity of the attack on the Puerto Jordán military base, in the Colombian department of Arauca (east), in Puerto Jordan, Colombia, 17 September 2024. EFE/ Colombian Army EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES/ONLY AVAILABLE TO ILLUSTRATE THE ACCOMPANYING NEWS/MANDATORY CREDIT/MAXIMUM QUALITY AVAILABLE
The government delegation at the dialogue table confirmed President Gustavo Petro’s remarks after the attack when he said it “ends a peace process with blood.”
A handout photo made available by the Colombian Army communications office of a truck in fire in the vicinity of the attack on the Puerto Jordán military base, in the Colombian department of Arauca (east), in Puerto Jordan, Colombia, 17 September 2024. EFE/ Colombian Army EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES/ONLY AVAILABLE TO ILLUSTRATE THE ACCOMPANYING NEWS/MANDATORY CREDIT/MAXIMUM QUALITY AVAILABLE
“During these months the government has sent the ELN multiple proposals. Todaythe dialogue process is suspended. Its viability is severely damaged, and its continuity can only be recovered with an unequivocal manifestation of the ELN’s will for peace,” the delegation added in a statement, which did not completely close the door to the process.
They also expressed their “absolute rejection of the attack perpetrated by the ELN on the military base in Puerto Jordán, Arauca” and expressed their condolences to the families of the victims “in the face of this new act of violence that claims the lives of young Colombians.”
The government and the ELN started fresh peace talks in Caracas in November 2022, but they stalled at the beginning of this year due to the group’s demands that the government remove them from the list of terrorist groups and abandon regional dialogues such as the one it maintains in the department of Nariño with Comuneros del Sur, which has split from the ELN.
During negotiations in Caracas, Havana and Mexico City, the parties agreed to a one-year bilateral ceasefire, the longest ever agreed with the guerrilla group, and which ended on Aug. 3, after which the ELN resumed its attacks against the armed forces and infrastructure across the country, especially in Arauca, where the group is particularly strong.
Petro compared the incident to the 2019 ELN car bomb attack against the Colombian Police Cadet School in Bogotá, which left 20 dead and 68 wounded, and put an end to the talks that the government was holding at that time with the guerrilla group.
“Just as it happened that time in another place nearby, at the police academy where many police officers and cadets, who were studying there, lost their lives, this is practically an act that ends a peace process in blood,” he added.
On that occasion, the government of Iván Duque broke off peace negotiations with the guerrillas.
On Tuesday, the Puerto Jordán military base was attacked with “homemade explosive devices launched from a dump truck,” the head of the armed forces, General Luis Emilio Cardozo, said.
The Ministry of National Defense named two soldiers killed as Bayron Andrés Correa Vargas and Julián Patiño Arango.
Of 27 wounded, 20 were affected by shrapnel and the effects of the blast, and seven were seriously injured and evacuated, the ministry said.
On Sunday two soldiers were gunned down in a rural area of Arauca in an attack that the army attributed to the ELN.
This terrorism escalation also includes attacks on the Caño Limón-Coveñas and Bicentenario oil pipelines, two of the most important in the country.
The Caño Limón-Coveñas pipeline, 770 kilometers long, transports oil from the wells of Arauca to Coveñas, a Colombian port on the Caribbean Sea. EFE
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