The kidnapping of Army sergeant Libey Danilo Bravo, this weekend, added a new element of tension in the negotiation that the Government is carrying out with the ELN, which in Mexico is currently in its second cycle. Yesterday the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, said that they demanded at the talks table that the uniformed man be released.
Commissioner Rueda’s pronouncement came hours after President Petro warned that “these are facts that sabotage any possibility of peace. These acts of violence against the Public Force and those that the communities suffer every day cannot have a place in our society.”
“The ELN has been demanded at the table that is in session in Mexico the freedom of the military that is in its power. The release was already requested, the President of the Republic himself did so; When we received the information while in Mexico, we immediately asked the ELN to release him.”Rueda said yesterday, after speaking before the Peace Commission of Congress, where he took stock of the rapprochement with the armed groups in the context of the Government’s peace policy.
The official considered that despite this kidnapping and other actions that the ELN has committed in the midst of the negotiations that it has been conducting with the Government since last November, “there is a will on the part of the National Liberation Army. We are talking about a dialogue in the midst of an armed conflict that does not have a ceasefire.”
One of the central points of the second cycle of the negotiations that is taking place in Mexico City is the discussion on the possibility that the Government and this subversive group agree to a bilateral ceasefire.
Last Sunday, Rueda said that “the table will be strengthened with the deepening of issues of interest to Colombia: issues of participation and issues of ceasefire and de-escalation of the conflict.”
Beforehand, the bilateral ceasefire with the ELN caused a disappointment to the Government, after President Petro announced on December 31 that they had agreed with this guerrilla and with four other illegal armed groups.
However, hours later the ELN denied the president, stating that it did not agree to this measure and demanded that the government not make announcements that are not negotiated at the table.
This situation produced a mini-crisis in the negotiations, which forced the government to ask the ELN for an extraordinary meeting in Caracas a few weeks ago, where the parties agreed not to make announcements outside the table, as well as to start discussing a ceasefire. bilateral in the second cycle in Mexico.
For his part, Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao, who is part of the table on behalf of the Church, expressed his concern about the kidnapping of the Army uniform, as well as other violent actions that the ELN continues to carry out in the midst of the peace negotiations. .
“This will be a subject of the negotiation table that is taking place in Mexico with the ELN, and it draws our attention to the urgency of moving towards a ceasefire that allows all conditions to be guaranteed,” said Monsignor Henao.
‘Second Marquetalia’
The commissioner for Peace also said, in response to the rapprochement with the ‘Segunda Marquetalia’, that according to the legal analyzes that have been carried out, it would not have a political status and, therefore, the path it has is to submit to justice.
“Law 2272 refers, in article 2, to a situation in which people who have signed peace processes are excluded from being beneficiaries of this law. The high instance is in the definition of qualification of who are high impact groups ”, he explained.
They will release six dissidents
The Peace Commissioner announced that the Government will ask judges to release six members of the dissidents of alias ‘Iván Mordisco’ to be appointed managers.
He explained that “the truth is that, if there were releases, those releases are temporary suspensions of a judicial decision, the judicial investigation continues and the deprivation of liberty is suspended for a few days while those people meet, then they return to their place of deprivation of freedom”.
The figure of peace manager is established by law for members of armed groups, who have the function of contributing to managing and implementing humanitarian agreements during the dialogue phase.