(CNN Spanish) –– In the midst of peace processes with illegal armed groups, bilateral ceasefires and announcements of talks, even with criminal gangs at the service of drug trafficking such as the so-called Gulf Clan, violence in Colombia seems to have no containment or respite. The most recent event was the attack this Tuesday against a military base in the department of Arauca, which left two soldiers dead and 26 seriously injured, and motivated President Gustavo Petro to affirm that it was “practically an action that closes the peace process with blood”, in reference to the guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN).
The so-called “total peace” policy, one of the banners of the current leftist government, seems not to be giving the results that Petro had promised. Including reaching an agreement in three months with the ELN, as he stated when he was a presidential candidate.
This Thursday, Antonio García, head of the ELN, said in your X account that the Government is the one who has failed to comply with the agreements reached at the negotiating table. “We must remember that the peace process between the Government and the ELN is frozen due to non-compliance with agreements by the Government. On the part of the ELN, it took a while to try to restore the cessation, but it was not possible,” said García, without acknowledging or denying responsibility for the attack against the military base in Arauca.
“This peace process was mortally wounded and this attack is like the grave of this process. A process that was not going anywhere because the ELN is internally divided between those who agree to advance peace and those who want to continue in the war,” Ariel Ávila, senator for the Green Alliance party, told CNN.
Former ELN member León Valencia, analyst and director of the NGO Paz y Reconciliación, said in your account at X that this guerrilla has lost its political direction. “The ELN has agreed with those who have said that it has no desire for peace, unfortunately this stronghold of the armed conflict that has hit the country for 60 years has decided to remain in a violence that is as useless as it is harmful,” Valencia once said. President Petro’s decision to pause the peace process with the ELN is known.
The civilian population is the one that has borne the brunt in the midst of the difficulties of the processes with the ELN, sectors of the FARC dissidents and the Gulf Clan, which are not moving forward and are already halfway through President Petro’s term. So far in 2024, 49 massacres have been recorded in Colombia, according to the Institute of Development and Peace Studies, Indepaz. One of the most serious occurred on September 8 in the town of López de Micay in the department of Cauca, where 12 people were murdered. Furthermore, the situation for social leaders and human rights defenders continues to be very serious. 117 of them have been murdered so far this year according to this non-governmental organization that keeps one of the most reliable records on this type of events in the country.
But the situation of violence is not only experienced in peripheral and remote areas, generally with the presence of coca leaf crops, but also in departments such as Valle del Cauca, Atlántico, Antioquia and near Bogotá. This Thursday, videos and photographs were released in local media and social networks of alleged members of the FARC dissidents who had intimidated inhabitants of the Sumapaz region, in the south of Bogotá.
“Terrorists at ease doing whatever they want in the Sumapaz region, rural area of Bogotá. The criminals of the Second Marquetalia intimidated the passengers. This country does not deserve to have an irresponsible person as its leader,” published Senator María Fernanda Cabal of the right-wing party and opponent of the Democratic Center government.
CNN has not been able to corroborate the veracity of the images and Colombian government authorities have not yet commented on the matter. CNN has consulted the Ministry of Defense, but has not yet received a response.
This Thursday, the mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, referred to these events and said that he is already coordinating actions with the military authorities to guarantee security in the area. “Fear and violence cannot return to Sumapaz. “I reject the events that occurred yesterday, in which men armed with rifles intercepted vehicles in the Alto Caicedo village in Sumapaz, unloaded their occupants and left the cars painted with messages alluding to the Second Marquetalia,” Galán said in his X official account.
This entire panorama, which in addition to murders includes reports of kidnappings and extortion of merchants and businessmen, worries citizens who are clamoring for more security in the midst of the violent actions of armed groups.
