ELN peace negotiators deny link to Bogotá Attack

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 22 (ACN) ELN guerrilla commander Pablo Beltrán denied on Monday in Havana any link between members of his delegation of negotiators and the attack in Bogotá on Jan. 17, which left some 20 dead, Prensa Latina reported.

Our task in Cuba is to move forward the agenda of conversations, the events that occur in Colombia we do not know or have any interference or anything to do with them, said the leader of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in statements to PL.
Beltrán insisted that upon their arrival in Havana, the Cuban government welcomed them and offered them its help as guarantor and seat of the talks but at the same time asked the spokespersons of that insurgent group to limit themselves exclusively to peace talks.
We have fulfilled that to the letter and we have focused on advancing the conversations," he emphasized.
The ELN claimed responsibility for the fact that the Colombian president, Iván Duque, decided to suspend negotiations with the group, initiated by his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos in Quito and later transferred to the capital. In addition, the president activated arrest warrants against the 10 members of the peace delegation, according to the informative note.
This commission continues to work actively to reopen the rounds of debates, while the guarantor and accompanying countries are interested in maintaining the initial protocols provided in case of a breakdown of the talks, to give a good closure to the process so that those who have promoted this effort do not end up paying what we do not owe, added Beltran.
The ELN leader stressed that such an agreement for the safe return to the jungles of the South American country must be respected by the current occupant of the Casa de Nariño due to its binding nature.
There is a protocol that says that in case of interruption of the conversations the State itself must give guarantees for our return, so what it must do is comply with what was agreed instead of asking impossible things from Cuba, commented Beltrán when referring to Bogotá's request for Cubato deliver these spokespersons.
We respect the position of the island, guarantor country and seat of the table (...) any activity outside of it does not concern it and it does not have to answer for it.
Cuba has never allowed nor will it allow its territory to be used for the organization of terrorist acts against any State, Cuba has strictly fulfilled its role as Guarantor and Alternative Seat of the Colombian Table of Dialogues between the Government and the ELN, wrote Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez in one of his tweets.
In a dialogue with Prensa Latina, the head of the ELN group appointed to talk with representatives of the Colombian government considered that despite the current difficulties, it is necessary to persist in the political solution to the long armed conflict, which caused the death of almost 300,000 people.
In total, the internal war has left around eight million victims, a figure that also includes some seven million displaced from their places of origin and thousands of disappeared.
With the previous government we began these meetings with the understanding that they would take place in the middle of the confrontation, this administration arrived but delayed in coming to the table because it hoped to weaken the ELN with military operations, these six months that we have been waiting in Havana have been of a military offensive against us, he said.
Faced with such a reality," he added, "there have been responses like Thursday's, but over and above the problems and confrontations we must insist on a concerted solution to the conflict, we are criticized for this attack, but even so many people say that they have to follow the peace process and pressure from society will get the dialogues resumed, he said.
Finally, Beltrán announced that the protocols and agreements reached would be handed over to serve as a starting point for future negotiations.
Millions of Colombians demand that both the government and the ELN return to the table, he said.
Less numerous than the former FARC-EP, already demobilized, the National Liberation Army has been active for more than half a century, ends the information released on Monday by Prensa Laltina.