By BEATRIZ VALDES CORREA. Consonant*
Two days before the cessation of offensive actions between the National Liberation Army and the Public Force, this guerrilla declared an indefinite armed strike in the south of Chocó. There are at least 52 confined communities and six displaced ones who find it more difficult every day to get food and access basic services. The organizations reiterate the need for an urgent humanitarian agreement.
In the San Juan subregion, south of Chocó, there are 41 Afro and 11 indigenous communities confined by the violent actions of the National Liberation Army and the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. In total, according to the Ombudsman’s Office, there are around 8,300 people. In addition, there are six communities that are displaced. According to the General Community Council of San Juan (Asocasan), some of these groups of displaced persons reached communities that today cannot move freely in their territories either due to the armed strike that the ELN declared on July 4.
This announcement circulated through an audio in which Commander “Gerson”, of the Eastern War Front, ordered to cease mobility on rivers and highways in San Juan. This happened just two days before the date on which both the guerrillas and the Public Force agreed to cease all offensive actions between them, as a preparation for the ceasefire with the Army that will begin on August 9.
The strike aggravates the situation in which the communities find themselves: food is becoming scarce and people who need to go out, due to health situations, do not. Given this, the Chocó Humanitarian and Peacebuilding Table, through a statement, called for compliance with International Humanitarian Law so that “the parties in conflict facilitate the rapid and unhindered passage of humanitarian assistance.” This, above all, in the municipalities of Sipí, Nóvita and Istmina. In response, on July 7, the ELN announced that it will open a daytime humanitarian corridor on July 9 and 10 so that the population “can get supplies.”
In other territories, where the ELN maintains control, the situation is different. For example, in Tadó the urban population does not feel unemployment yet, but some people know that in the next few days, if it continues, there will be consequences. “Because of the strikes we feel chased. When there is a strike, all things go up, but they don’t go down,” says Gregorio Palacios, a mining worker from Tados. Meanwhile, vehicle traffic on the Tadó – Pereira road flows normally.
In the rural area of the municipality, the indigenous peoples have been unable to freely enter their territories for several weeks for fear of stepping on an antipersonnel mine or meeting the guerrillas. A situation that It already accumulates several monthss. In addition, there has been forced recruitment of indigenous minors. According to a source in the territory, in recent days the ELN guerrillas took two young people and although the guard tried to search for them, they could not recover them. The authorities are evaluating what actions they will take to protect the young people.
All of this embodies the alert that social organizations have launched for several months: to alleviate the situation of the communities, a multilateral cessation of hostilities is necessary.
The ELN’s war technique
The week of June 26 in the magazine Insurrección, the ELN’s Western War Front stated that there was collusion between the Armed Forces and the paramilitaries, a fact that “increases violence and forced displacement.” A day later, the first commander of this guerrilla, Antonio García, affirmed on Twitter that the Public Force, through alliances with these groups, would launch “actions with the purpose of evicting the ELN from the territories and keeping them.” Then, they decreed an armed strike.
For Ángela Olaya, co-founder and researcher of the organization Conflict Responses (Core), one explanation for this decision is that the ELN believes that the Clan del Golfo can take advantage of the ceasefire to expand and improve its combat position against them. “I think they are evaluating that risk and with the armed strike they are trying to prevent that from happening,” she says.
Olaya explains that, in the logic of the conflict, this is a consequence of the fact that a multilateral cessation has not been agreed. “The other actor (the AGC) is moving quite high, and that is one of the effects for me of making a bilateral and not a multilateral ceasefire. When you involve everyone in a cessation it is much easier to lessen the clear humanitarian impact, and that is not happening.”
This move by the ELN questions the will for peace of a guerrilla that is in peace negotiations with the government. “When a cessation of some kind is announced, unilateral or bilateral, one expects a kind of gradualness to reach the cessation, that prior to the start the actions begin to decrease, but in military logic it is the opposite,” explains Tatiana Prada, Researcher at the Ideas for Peace Foundation.
“When a cessation of some kind, unilateral or bilateral, is announced, one expects a kind of gradualness to reach the cessation, that prior to the start the actions begin to decrease, but in military logic it is the opposite”
Tatiana Prada
“What we see is that the type of actions that have been taking place are traditional actions from the ELN’s repertoire: kidnapping, attack on public forces and armed strike in the region where more armed strikes have been announced in recent times,” he adds. In part, this escalation of violence is intended to demonstrate that their power and territorial control is still in force: “if they comply with the ceasefire it is more evident when it contrasts with a period of many actions, but it is also important to show that they ceasefire because they agreed so but not because they are forced or diminished”, says the researcher.
Protocols and defensive actions: what remains to be defined
By August 9, the date on which the ceasefire is scheduled to begin, several points should already be defined, such as the actions prohibited within the ceasefire, the verification protocol of the church and the participation of civil society, and what are the defensive actions allowed.
For Ángela Olaya, it is key that this last issue advances in the coming days, since it will be what can avoid confrontations. “In the previous cessation, which lasted 101 days, the protocol was very ambiguous. Here the key is going to be that the mechanism is robust enough so that it does not lend itself to any kind of interpretation. In addition, the capacity of the public forces and the ELN to make each of their forces understand what the defensive elements will be will be key. Olaya considers that the challenge at this moment is embodied in kidnapping.
“For the Public Force, within the dismissal and within the offensive actions is the issue of IHL, but Antonio García said on Twitter that defensive actions did not necessarily exclude kidnapping. So I think that if they manage to define and make the ELN realize that kidnapping does or does fall within the prohibited, since it is not a defensive action, progress can be made. Kidnapping as a defensive action makes no sense.”
While the protocols advance, the population continues to wait for humanitarian aid to arrive, that is, food, medicine and toiletries. But, above all, that the strike is lifted and the dialogues advance, hopefully with everyone. “In order for there to be peace and more tranquility, the idea is that it can be negotiated with all the groups, because one stops generating violence, but the other doesn’t,” says a housewife from this region.
“In order for there to be peace and more tranquility, the idea is that it can be negotiated with all the groups, because one stops generating violence, but the other does not”
Inhabitant of San Juan
In a timely manner, Acadesan asked the national government to allocate the money for the gasoline needed by the boats that the National Protection Unit delivered to the Community Council, since right now they have no way to go to verify information on the sidewalks, transport the sick or food . In addition, from the indigenous communities they request that offers arrive to counteract the recruitment. “Here we need to strengthen the schools, they cannot continue recruiting minors,” says a leader who prefers that his identity be protected.
*Consonante is a communication medium that produces information on municipalities considered information deserts in Colombia by the hand of a network of citizens trained in local journalism. Consonante is a project of the Foundation for the Freedom of the Press. Visit our website at www.consonante.org