(Bogotá) At least 9,800 people have been forcibly placed in confinement in northeastern Colombia, due to an “armed strike” launched by the National Liberation Army (ELN) on the sidelines of peace negotiations with government, the Colombian Ombudsman said in a statement on Friday.
These civilians from the municipalities of Istmina, Medio San Juan, Sipi and Novita are “confined indefinitely” by the rebels and have their movements, their daily activities, access to food and health services restricted, explained the public human rights watchdog.
The ELN decreed on Wednesday a ban on movement and work in this region where the “young Santiago Caceres” was assassinated on Monday by “paramilitaries in cahoots” with the public authorities, according to the guerrillas.
According to the Ombudsman, members of the Clan Del Golfo cartel – also known as “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia” (AGC) – raided a neighborhood in Istmina on December 12, where a person was murdered.
“Communities of African and indigenous origin who live in this sub-region of Medio San Juan have faced several successive confinements and massive displacements” in this area where “illegal groups” are rampant, “added the defense agency of the rights.
This “armed strike” has sparked criticism in the opposition and within the left-wing government, which completed a first round of peace talks with the guerrillas in Caracas earlier this week.
The government and the ELN, which has been active since 1964 and which has around 2,500 combatants according to independent estimates, notably announced “humanitarian actions” to limit violence in the now paralyzed region.
The talks resumed in November on the basis of the peace process left in abeyance by the government of Ivan Duque (2018-2022). They must continue during a second session in 2023 in Mexico.
The dialogue is continuing without a ceasefire having been declared.