Call on armed groups to end clashes

The Colombian High Commissioner for Peace made an urgent call on Saturday to the armed groups to end their confrontations that keep the inhabitants confined in the disputed areas in the neighboring departments of Nariño and Cauca.

In one of two statements, the office of the Peace Commissioner assured that “a territorial dispute” between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Segunda Marquetalia is causing “serious havoc and anxiety” in the town of Ricaurte, in Nariño.

He added that the office has verified “the confinement and displacement” of the communities, especially the Awá indigenous ethnic group, due to the escalation of the conflict in recent days. To this would be added the extortions that affect the commercial sector in the urban area.

The High Commissioner for Peace called for the cessation of the “senseless” confrontation, of a “fratricidal war”, an expression of the barbarism that prevents the advance of these communities and plunges them into abandoned territories, he said.

The office will lead a peace mission that will remain in the area to accompany the displaced communities, he said.

In another statement along the same lines, the High Commissioner asked the ELN and Segunda Marquetalia to put an end to their armed dispute because the inhabitants of northern Cauca are in danger of displacement.

He pointed out that the OACP is preparing a new peace mission that will go to the critical zone of the confrontations in Cauca, where the inhabitants face a “permanent situation of fear and danger.”

The ELN is considered the last active guerrilla in the Andean country after the signing of the 2016 peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), among whose dissidents is the Second Marquetalia, the largest faction that took up arms in 2019, under the command of alias “Iván Márquez”.

The ELN and the government of Gustavo Petro announced on June 9 a ceasefire for a period of six months, agreed during the closing of the round of negotiations that took place in Havana-Cuba.

La Segunda Marquetalia has shown its interest in joining the peace talks.

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