The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, revealed in a interview published on Friday that it signed a military alliance with Venezuela to counter the presence of the National Liberation Army (ELN) on both sides of the border.
From Washington, where he was on an official visit, the Colombian president told the magazine Weekthat there is a military cooperation alliance with Caracas to “take space” from the ELN.
“The ELN did not accept the ceasefire that was agreed in December. To that extent, what there is is a military confrontation that now has a new ingredient: the Military Forces in Venezuela are acting in alliance with the Colombian Government, with its Army, taking away a space that was previously freely held by the ELN,” the statement read. that Petro gave to the Colombian magazine.
Various reports have documented the presence of the ELN in eight Venezuelan states. The group’s force is made up of nearly 5,000 troops, including urban networks, according to military intelligence.
The government of Gustavo Petro began peace talks with the armed group in November of last year in Caracas, in an attempt to put an end to an internal conflict with the last guerilla up in arms in Colombia, with which different governments have maintained frustrated peace talks since 1975.
The delegations of the Colombian government and the ELN will sit down again at the peace negotiation table on April 26 In the Habanaafter the dialogues were threatened after a guerrilla attack with explosives to a group of soldiers, which left nine dead and nine wounded.
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