Colombia's ELN rebels to hold ceasefire for March 13 legislative vote

The ELN regularly declares ceasefires to facilitate voting in the Andean country. The rebel group, which is accused of financing itself with kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal mining, held nascent peace talks with the previous government to end its role in Colombia's internal armed conflict, which has left some 260,000 dead, but they were not successful.

Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), the leftist guerrilla group founded by radical Catholic priests, on Friday declared a six-day ceasefire for upcoming legislative elections and political parties' presidential primaries. Colombians go to the polls on March 13 to elect members of Congress and choose presidential candidates for three political coalitions.

"To facilitate election day and attendance at polls for those who want to vote, we are announcing a ceasefire throughout the country," the ELN said in a statement, adding that the pause in hostilities would start from midnight (0500 GMT) on March 10 and run until the end of March 15. The rebel group, which consists of around 2,400 combatants and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, said it reserved the right to defend itself if attacked by Colombia's armed forces.

Defense Minister Diego Molano dismissed the ceasefire as a political stunt. The ELN regularly declares ceasefires to facilitate voting in the Andean country.

The rebel group, which is accused of financing itself with kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal mining, held nascent peace talks with the previous government to end its role in Colombia's internal armed conflict, which has left some 260,000 dead, but they were not successful. The possibility of peace talks with the government of President Ivan Duque, whose term ends this year, was put on ice in 2019 after an ELN bombing killed more than 20 police cadets in Bogota, the country's capital.

The ELN is considered more radical than the FARC rebels, who inked a peace deal in 2016, and has a more diffuse chain of command, making Duque's other demands - that the group stop kidnappings, free hostages and stop using anti-personnel mines - hard to meet. Duque has requested that Cuba extradite ELN leaders, but the government in Havana has not done so.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)