The shelling dropped Tuesday on the military base in eastern Arauca brought about injuries to 25 other troops.
The incident came at a time of raising tensions between the sides due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement to extend the ceasefire, which had been in force for a year but it expired on August 3. In addition, the dialogue table had been frozen for over four months, as decreed by the ELN.
Immediately after the aggression became known, President Gustavo Petro condemned it, and described it as an action that practically closed the peace process “with blood.”
Another official who spoke out in very strong terms was the Interior Minister, Juan Fernando Cristo. He stated that to talk about peace it takes two, and that the armed group does not seem interested in a peace process, but simply in being seated at a table.
“I am not very optimistic, I am pessimistic about the ELN’s will for peace. The government has acted generously and the ELN has been left behind by the train of history,” the minister asserted.
The following day, the Government Delegation in dialogue with that guerrilla issued a communiqué in which it endorsed the announcement made by Petro the day before.
“During these months the Government has made multiple proposals to the ELN. Today the dialogue process is suspended. Its viability is seriously damaged and its continuity can only be recovered with an unequivocal manifestation of the ELN’s will for peace,” the communication referred.
In response, the Commander of that insurgency, Antonio Garcia, posted on his social networks that, even in the midst of military operations, peace processes can be continued and added that this has been done in several moments of different governments and that now cannot be the exception.
He insisted that the peace process between the Government and the ELN remained frozen, as he alleged, due to non-compliance with the agreements of the counterpart, and referred that the armed group gave a waiting period seeking to recompose the ceasefire, but it was not possible.
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