Colombia suspends cease-fire with ELN rebels after group denied agreement

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - The Colombian government called off a cease-fire with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels Wednesday, after the guerrilla group rejected President Gustavo Petro´s announcement that both parties had reached an agreement.

"We have decided to suspend the legal effects of decree 2657 of December 31, 2022 and in the next cycle (of negotiations) the dialogue on this matter will be reactivated," Interior Minister Alfonso Prada said at a news conference.

Prada said that although military attacks against the group will not cease “the government will not give up at any time, under any circumstances, the search for respect for life in order to build total peace.”

Petro announced Jan. 1 a six-month bilateral cease-fire with the five largest armed groups operating in the country, including the ELN, which is currently holding peace talks with the government.

But ELN rebels rejected Petro´s announcement Tuesday that it reached an agreement with the government.

“The ELN Dialogue Delegation has not discussed with the Government of Gustavo Petro any proposal for a Bilateral Ceasefire, therefore there is still no agreement on this matter,” it said in a statement. “A unilateral decree of the Government cannot be accepted as an agreement.”

The armed group said that it will be willing to discuss the proposal for a cease-fire when peace talks resume.

Peace negotiations that were suspended by former President Ivan Duque were resumed by the Colombian government and the ELN last month. Talks with the group began in 2017 in Ecuador during the government of Juan Manuel Santos. They were moved in 2018 to Havana.

The talks were interrupted by Duque in January 2019, a day after the group carried out a bombing at a police academy in Bogota that killed 21 officers.