Cease fire... and what about hostilities?

Before the cycle of negotiations with the ELN in Cuba, it is convenient to review its legal support, Law 2272 of 2022, by which "the State peace policy is defined", since it authorizes the Government to advance "Negotiations with groups armed groups organized outside the law with whom dialogues of a political nature are carried out”, a definition that has to do with the self-perception of the ELN and the ceasefire.

The ELN perceives itself as a regular army on equal terms with the Public Force, and it is not. In a recent statement, the COCE demands that its "military actions" be analyzed in the same way that the operations of government forces are analyzed," while Law 2272 makes it clear that political recognition to negotiate does not "legalize" the ELN, which continues to be an outlaw group.

Thus, in the same way that the Roundtable does not erase the illegality of the ELN, neither does it erase the constitutional legitimacy of the Public Force or its obligations to protect the lives and liberties of Colombians.

The ELN does not understand it that way, which separates its "military actions" against the Public Force, for them legitimate, and which they hope to limit in the Mesa ceasefire, from their illegal activities harassing society, which are not refer, as if they did not exist.

In fact, while the agenda includes the "cease of fire and hostilities", both in the Table and in its public statements, the latter are "invisible" and the conflict seems to be reduced to legitimate responses to "the parastatal offensive."

In the editorial of the magazine "Insurrección", Antonio García affirms without embarrassment that "While the Roundtable is active (...) the Military Forces maintain an offensive against the ELN, (...) acting jointly with narco-paramilitary forces." – What an anachronism! -, to conclude that, "...as long as there is no cessation and we continue to be attacked, we have the right to defend ourselves and to act in response."

And while this is how they justify their violence against the Public Force, their harassment of society..., not a word, despite being a "System of Subjugation" from which not even the local authorities escape. However, the hostilities (murder, kidnapping, extortion, illegal mining, etc.) are illegal activities that, by constitutional mandate, must be prosecuted by the Public Force, but this persecution is classified by the ELN as attacks to which they have the right to respond, in a hellish vicious circle of violence.

Who loses? The people in the territories and cities; "the population as a whole" that the Mexico Agreement defines as "The main protagonist and beneficiary of these agreements"

I insist; without a cessation of hostilities there can be no ceasefire. An agreement that leaves the Public Force with its hands tied against illegality does not pass a constitutional test, nor does it pass the test of a society overwhelmed by violence.

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