Catholic Church asks the government of Colombia and the ELN to unfreeze the dialogue table

The Episcopal Conference of Colombia (CEC) called on the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) to resume the peace dialogue, after it was closed by President Gustavo Petro following the attack committed by the guerrilla in Port Jordan.

On September 17, the Colombian president closed dialogue with the country’s oldest active guerrilla after it attacked a military garrison in the department of Arauca, which left three soldiers dead and more than twenty injured.

This Tuesday, the armed group attacked an Army troop with explosives in the department of Norte de Santander, killing one soldier and injuring five others.

“We consider it key to unfreeze the dialogue table to continue developing the agreements reached so that the people’s clamor for a ceasefire is also responded to,” the bishops say. in his statement posted yesterday.

In the text, the prelates refer to the bilateral ceasefire that had been the result of the third round of negotiations and that, after a first renewal, expired on August 3.

“We have the historical responsibility to rekindle hope and foster social friendship so that transformations are possible,” the bishops added.

The dialogue table had Norway, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Chile and Mexico as guarantor countries, and as companions the Colombian Episcopate, the UN and Spain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

“We value and encourage, as a sign of hope,” the bishops express, “the historic task that you have assumed to advance a project of peace, with the participation of society and with options for relief, dynamics and humanitarian actions that have been agreed from the beginning.”

For this reason, they encouraged both parties “to maintain a channel of dialogue in this time of difficulty,” to meet again “to recognize and value each other,” and to “move forward to provide relief to the communities that are in the midst of confrontation and “They can’t stand any more bloodshed.”

The dialogue with the ELN was part of the president’s promise to achieve “total peace” in Colombia. However, it is not the first time that a peace process has been closed with this guerrilla.

In January 2018, President Juan Manuel Santos put an end to negotiations with the ELN, after a series of attacks that it committed after the expiration of a four-month ceasefire.