The possible participation of the United States in the dialogues that the national government is carrying out with the ELN and in an eventual multi-donor fund, was ruled out by that country.
The State Department considers that the members of this guerrilla are terrorists who must face justice.
“The United States government has a vested interest in ensuring that terrorists and other illegal armed groups face justice and do not receive impunity. The Eln continues to be a foreign terrorist organization (…)”, says a document released yesterday.
It adds that “the United States has no plan to provide the ELN with any kind of assistance or resources.”
Further on, the State Department document indicates that “the United States has no current plans to join the talks between the Colombian government and the ELN. However, we continue to closely monitor these discussions.”
Since 2016, the United States has supported the implementation of the peace agreement with the FARC with more than US$1.5 billion in assistance.
Regarding the multi-donor fund, the national government, through the Peace Commissioner, Danilo Rueda, has maintained that “this fund has never been discussed at the dialogue table with the National Liberation Army, and what has been clarified to The opinion is that this matter will be derived when there is already a more solid phase of the peace agreement with the ELN, but with any armed group it will be the same. This is nothing new or anything different. All peace processes, when they have conclusions with collective resignations and with matters of agreements, have to achieve a transition for the armed groups to legal life”.
As will be remembered, both the prosecutor and other sectors rejected the possibility of creating this fund.
According to the head of the investigating entity, that would be forcing Colombians to pay the subversive group a “vaccine“.
Meanwhile, in an article titled “How the first left-wing presidency in Colombia derailed,” The Washington Post analyzes the way in which the latest scandals have affected the government of Gustavo Petro and, in contrast, have caused a positive reaction in the markets.
The note, written by Matthew Bristow, Bloomberg’s editor of Economy and Government for Latin America, summarizes the case that broke out at the end of May, when Marelbys Meza, former nanny of son Laura Sarabia, denounced that in January of this year she was subjected to an irregular polygraph test after being accused of having stolen money from the house of the former chief of staff.
The next four points of Bristow’s analysis focus on the effects that the scandal could have on Petro’s future as president, the reforms he is processing and the reaction of the markets to what is happening.
The journalist wonders if Petro will survive the scandal, and explains that although no head of state has been removed in Colombia and most analysts agree that it will survive, it will be very difficult to leave the “scandal behind.” This is due to the investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office on the strikes, the inquiries into the campaign by the National Electoral Council (CNE) and a possible process in the Accusation Commission of the House of Representatives, which “could potentially lead to criminal charges.” or to a recall vote.”
“With so many unanswered questions, it is possible that the scandal will drag on for a long time and the government will be bogged down in investigations,” adds Bristow.
Likewise, Bristow maintains that the reforms that President Petro is trying to process seek to “reduce the role of the private sector in the provision of medical care and pensions” and “strengthen the rights of workers”, but that he has met with opposition from the Liberal, Conservative and La U parties in Congress.
Finally, Bristow wonders if the Government is finished. And the answer is no because Petro can still rebuild majorities in Congress and that the president still has three years in which he can appoint co-directors of the Bank of the Republic and nominate names for magistrates, as well as “govern by decree for a while.” .