Members of the ELN navigate the waters of the San Juan River, in the department of Chocó, Colombia, in a file photo. Ivan Valencia (Bloomberg)
The top commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN), Antonio Garcia, responded on Friday to the demand made by the government's peace delegation to release the hostages held by the guerrillas. Through tweets posted on his X account, Garcia said that the organization he leads "complied" by freeing Luis Manuel Mane Diaz, father of soccer player Luis Diaz, who was kidnapped for 12 days. He further said: "There is no agreement [...] on economic, political or judicial retentions."
This Thursday, after the release of Mane Diaz, in which the UN and the Colombian Episcopal Conference intervened, the Government Peace Delegation issued a statement in which it celebrates the release of Diaz in good conditions, but also points out that the kidnapping plunged the dialogue with the guerrillas into "a critical situation" that implies "making decisions that eliminate kidnapping."
The delegation of
the National Government to the Peace Talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) would like to inform the public that: pic.twitter.com/lLHWKlsDtb
— Peace Delegation of the Government of Colombia (@DelegacionGob) November 9, 2023
The delegation, the text continues, will demand in the next meeting it holds with its counterpart from the ELN that all the people who remain kidnapped are also released "in conditions of security and dignity immediately." The four-point document adds: "This type of crime causes serious damage to the confidence of Colombian society in the possibility of achieving peace." The statement adds that the kidnapping is "a great obstacle" to all the understandings that are aspired to be reached through the dialogues.
Later, the delegation criticizes the economic arguments used by the guerrillas to justify the practice of kidnapping: "It is untenable to argue, from an ethical point of view, that trading in human beings is lawful, even under the circumstances of an armed conflict." The statement is signed by Otty Patiño, head of the delegation, Iván Cepeda, María José Pizarro, José Félix Lafaurie, Orlando Romero, Adelaida Jiménez, Olga Lilia Silva, Rodrigo Botero, Horacio Guerrero and Rosmery Quintero.
A day later, on Friday, the guerrilla leader questioned, on the same social network: "And how is the government going to respond to the violations of the ceasefire? Will they continue to be crazy?" He then added that the ELN will not accept impositions or blackmail: "Don't have any illusions."
And how is the government going to respond to the violations of the ceasefire? Will they continue to be crazy? 🤔
The ELN will not accept impositions or blackmail. Don't get your hopes up. The ELN will respect what has been agreed.
— Antonio García (@AntonioGaELN) November 10, 2023
Kidnapping is one of the most repudiated and traumatizing practices in the decades of violence that Colombia has experienced. In spite of this, and despite the fact that it has been with this government that the ELN has made the most progress in the dialogues (which it has undertaken, unsuccessfully, with almost all the Executives for nearly four decades), the guerrillas do not renounce the illegal retentions with which they finance themselves and which violate International Humanitarian Law. which indicates the rules of conflicts. Military intelligence estimates that today the guerrillas hold about 30 people hostage, while, according to the Truth Commission, between 1990 and 2018, they were responsible for more than 9,500 kidnappings.
According to data from the Ministry of Defense, until last September, 2023 has been the year with the highest number of kidnappings in a decade. The figures for that crime have returned to the time when the now-extinct FARC was still fighting. Tatiana Prada, a researcher at the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), warns of the fact that, more than 25 years after one of the bloodiest periods of the conflict in Colombia, when kidnappings and miraculous catches were a daily reality, kidnapping has not disappeared. "The groups have created a narrative to justify their existence and delay their end," he says.
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