The ELN rebel front in Nariño, Comuneros del Sur, announced its break with the command of that guerrilla. This front had distanced itself from the national dialogue table and had begun a parallel peace process with the government of Gustavo Petro and the Government of Nariño.
The decision had unleashed the fury of the Elena command. Even “Antonio García”, commander of the ELN, accuses the commander of this front, alias “HH”, of being an infiltrator of military intelligence. Furthermore, Pablo Beltrán, chief negotiator of that guerrilla, had said that Comuneros del Sur was no longer part of that guerrilla.
What does the Southern Community Front say? “Unanimously, the Assembly decides to declare the break with the Central Command and National Directorate. The above entails not accepting the treatment of aggression and the current model of leadership from political exile,” says alias “Daniel”, one of the Comuneros commanders, in a video statement.
The decision was made after the first “Assembly of the Comuneros Front”, in which all the commanders and guerrillas met to make this decision. As a result, they also decided to reiterate their willingness to bet on the territorial peace of Nariño and their commitment to the humanitarian demining process, in addition to maintaining their willingness to engage in political negotiation with the government.
Will the national table be unblocked? The government’s negotiating delegation told President Petro that a two-way negotiation with the ELN was not possible and asked the president to decide what to do. However, the delegation also proposed a third solution: that Comuneros del Sur be treated as an armed group outside the ELN.
The decision of this group facilitates this path and could unblock the dialogues at the national level, which are suffering a new crisis due to the decision of this guerrilla to kidnap again for economic purposes.
To understand more about the background of this front’s decision, we recommend this interview we did with alias “HH” in his rearguard in Nariño.
