This is one of the first hitches since the resumption of peace talks between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian government in November. The guerrillas launched a “armed strike” forcibly confining at least 9,800 people in the northeast of the country, the Colombian ombudsman announced in a press release on Friday December 16.
These civilians from the municipalities of Istmina, Medio San Juan, Sipi and Novita are “confined indefinitely” rebels and have their movements, daily activities, access to food and health services restricted, the state human rights watchdog said.
The ELN decreed on Wednesday a ban on driving and working in this region where the “young Santiago Caceres” was assassinated on Monday by “match paramilitaries” with the public authorities, according to the guerrillas.
According to the ombudsman, members of the Clan Del Golfo cartel – also known as “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia” (AGC) – raided a neighborhood in Istmina on December 12, where a person was murdered.
A guerrilla with 2,500 fighters
“The communities of African and indigenous origin who live in this Medio San Juan sub-region have faced several successive confinements and massive displacements” in this area where there are “illegal groups”the rights agency added.
This “armed strike” sparked criticism in the opposition and within the leftist government which completed a first round of peace talks with the guerrillas in Caracas earlier this week.
The government and the ELN, which has been active since 1964 and which has approximately 2,500 combatants according to independent estimates, have notably announced ” humanitarian actions “ to limit violence in the now paralyzed region.
The talks resumed in November on the basis of the peace process left in abeyance by the government of Ivan Duque (2018-2022). They must continue during a second session in 2023 in Mexico even if no ceasefire has really been pronounced.