So far, the attack against a military installation in the Colombian department of Arauca has left a balance of two dead soldiers and 27 wounded
by the cable services of El Reportero
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced this Tuesday what would be a drastic decision on the peace talks with the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), after the attack on a military base located in Puerto Jordán, in the department of Arauca, El Tiempo reports.
During the inauguration of the magistrate of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, Claudia Expósito, the Colombian president blamed the ELN, with whom he assured that they were “talking about peace”, of perpetrating the attack against the military installation with a tractor-trailer loaded with explosives. So far, the attack left a balance of two dead soldiers and 27 wounded.
Petro also compared the recent attack with a similar one that took place in January 2019 at the Police Cadet School in Bogotá, which left 20 dead and 68 injured and caused the Colombian government to end the talks it was holding with the ELN.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Juan Fernando Cristo, said that this latest attack is an indication that the members of the guerrilla group “are definitely not interested in peace in Colombia.” “What the State has to do is pursue those authors of the attack and we are in a clear decision [to] fight against those violent people,” said Cristo, adding that “the ELN did not understand the message […] it has lost a historic opportunity to negotiate peace.”
Peace negotiations between Colombian authorities and the ELN have been at a standstill for around five months, while the ceasefire between the two sides ended on Aug. 3. According to local media, attacks by the ELN in the department of Arauca have increased in an attempt to force the Colombian government to accede to the guerrilla organization’s demands.
