Colombian Govt: No Dialogue If ELN, FARC Dissent Make Alliance

The Colombian Government assured on Monday that any peace agreement dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN) would be closed if this group makes an alliance with dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

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"If an alliance between the ELN and FARC dissidents is confirmed, the consequences would be very serious," the High Commissioner for Peace Miguel Ceballos said, warning that any further possibility of dialogue with the ELN would disappear.

Last year, on August 14, 2018, President Ivan Duque designated Ceballos as his High Commissioner for Peace and commissioned him to the peace dialogues with the ELN, which took place in Havana, Cuba.

On Monday however, Insurreccion magazine, the ELN official media, published a photograph of the video whereby Ivan Marquez announced he and other FARC dissidents would initiate a new stage of the armed struggle.

"We announce to the world that the second Marquetalia has begun under the protection of the universal right that assists all peoples to rise in arms against oppression," Marquez said on August 29.

Two and a half years after the Peace Agreement, progress has only been made in 23 percent of the commitments and 5 percent of women-focused measures. For Colombia to move forward, peace process implementation must be accelerated.

Immediately after, the ELN leader known as Uriel, who heads a guerrilla front operating at the Choco department, welcomed the return to arms of several FARC dissident leaders.

"We welcome the pronouncement made by Ivan Marquez, Jesus Santrich... and other colleagues who reintegrate into this form of popular resistance," Uriel said and added that "legal avenues for achieving society's profound transformations are closed," so "armed resistance to transform reality" is the alternative.

From Nov. 2016 up to a week ago, the Peace Agreement between the Colombian State and the FARC allowed to reduce the intensity of armed conflicts within this South American country.

Over the last three years, some 13,000 FARC members, including 7,000 guerrilla fighters, laid down their arms, joined civilian life and created the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force (FARC), a political party which also condemned the return of its former comrades to the armed struggle.