Colombia: The ELN calls for an armed strike

The ‘Omar Gómez’ front of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla has announced this Thursday the start of an indefinite armed strike in several municipalities of the department of Chocó, in western Colombia, a few days after the end of the first round of talks with the government.

The Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, has rejected this new guerrilla maneuver, which he has accused of being “launching postulates and narratives” without presenting “concrete facts” in search of peace, after this week both parties met in Caracas, Venezuela.

“You cannot be advancing negotiation processes, dialogues when we do not express or send an unequivocal message to the Colombian people through concrete acts of peace,” Camargo emphasized.

This is not a message of peace, this is not an announcement of reconciliation. The call is to tell any illegal armed group, and in particular the ELN, that we Colombians require genuine gestures of peace,” he insisted.

Camargo has said that they have information that the inhabitants of the affected municipalities have confined themselves of their own free will for fear of threats and guerrilla actions, reports the Blu Radio station.

This Monday the first round of negotiations between the guerrillas and the Government of Colombia concluded, with the announcement, among other things, that 20 people -among civilians and law enforcement officers- who remained in captivity of the ELN have been placed in freedom as part of the “clear commitment to peace”.

With information from La Gaceta