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The guerrilla of National Liberation Army (ELN) does not believe that the resumption of kidnappings for economic purposes, as announced on May 6, after agreeing to suspend them in February, is a “ultimatum”For the Government, but a “record“of yours”desire to continue looking for a way out of this matter”.
This was stated in an interview with EFE by the guerrilla’s chief negotiator, Israel Ramírez Pinedaknown as ‘Pablo Beltran‘, who assured that the announcement of the end of the suspension of that crime was nothing more than something expected, since their commitment was to suspend it for three months until they found another solution.
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This is because in To Havanawhen the extension of the ceasefire was negotiated, which was where this commitment from THEN suspend the “retentions for economic purposes”, this was done as a demonstration of goodwill by the guerrillas, he explains.
“The ELN can increasingly commit to incorporating more prohibited actions into the cessation, but the ELN also needs support to sustain the cessation.“, he states. In other words, they expected a financing solution to be negotiated for the guerrillas, whose source of income is kidnappings.
“That is the political will, but in the discussion we were unable to reach an agreement on this, that is, when we renewed this cessation there was no agreement to include the cessation of retentions in the extension.“said Beltrán, although, he adds, the ELN included its commitment”voluntarily a three-month unilateral cessation while we find solutions”.
However, it has been three months since the meeting in Havana and “The Round Table (of dialogues) entered a very difficult crisis and those solutions that we agreed to make were not worked on. Then three months passed, but we were unable to come up with solutions. There was a gap”.
“So we were forced to say by May 3rd that it was a unilateral cessation (of retentions for economic purposes) and we hope that we can resume discussions, to see if we can reach an agreement to that effect. Therefore, it is not an ultimatum, but rather a record that we are willing to continue seeking a way out of this matter that is scheduled to be included in the prohibited actions.“, highlights the guerrilla leader.
The two parties signed Caracas the first point of the six included in the negotiation agenda, but the crises and open disputes meant that a new cycle of dialogues has not been held since the end of January.
Now they will have to meet again to, among other issues, see if the ceasefire will be extended once again, which began on August 3 and will complete, for the first time in the history of the guerrilla, a year without violations or violations.
It is in this new negotiation that the ELN hopes that, if the Government complies, more prohibited actions will be added, such as kidnappings.
“Expropriate corrupt people”
Even if he International human law (IHL) considers the taking of hostages (the capture of a civilian not involved in the conflict) as a war crime, for the ELN the “retention“from civilians for economic purposes is not because it is a”temporary detention”.
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“These types of retentions, above all, are concentrated on people who have become rich through corruption in the treasury. This is a policy, that is, expropriating the corrupt (…) So it’s not just expropriating for the sake of expropriating, no, it’s the corrupt”, explains Beltrán.
Thus, the guerrilla points out that “they charge taxes” and that when they don’t comply is when “a temporary arrest is made”.
“I don’t want to compare, but there are many countries in the world where if you don’t pay taxes they stop you. Well, that’s it, it’s temporary detention and for us it’s not hostage taking.”, states the head of the ELN delegation at the dialogue table.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
