At least nine guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) have been killed in a series of clashes over the weekend in a rural area of the Pacific coast city of Buenaventura.
The bodies of the guerrillas have been transferred this Sunday to the Legal Medicine headquarters in the neighboring city of Cali, although sources consulted by RCN radio station speak of the clashes having taken place since Saturday.
In addition to the nine guerrillas killed, a navy soldier was also killed in combat. The presence of the authorities in the region responds to the need to accompany the communities affected by the fighting between different illegal armed groups, which has caused thousands of displaced people.
In this specific case, the Ombudsman’s Office has detailed that the fighting has its origin in an alliance forged between the Second Marquetalia and the ELN against another of the dissidents of the defunct FARC, the Jaime Martinez mobile column of the Western Coordinating Command (Comando Coordinador de Occidente).
This latest blow to the ELN comes just two weeks before the second round of talks take place in Mexico City between representatives of the guerrillas and the Colombian government, in the framework of the so-called ‘total peace’ that President Gustavo Petro has been pursuing since his arrival at Casa Nariño.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
