Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas announced Monday they had ended a unilateral suspension of kidnappings they proposed midway through peace talks with the government, representing a return to one of the worst practices in mid-Colombia. armed conflict.

The rebel group, which maintains a peace dialogue with the government of President Gustavo Petro, justified its decision by the delay in the operationalization of the Multilateral Donor Fund, intended to finance peace activities aimed at extricating the ELN from the six-nation internal conflict. decades, resulting in the deaths of more than 450 thousand people.

“To date, the fund has not yet been established, and the government has shown little desire to move forward in this area,” the rebel group said in a statement.

“Given the above, the ELN withdraws its proposal to unilaterally suspend economic withholdings,” said the rebel group of more than 5,800 members, including more than 3,000 combatants.

Kidnappings are one of the rebel group’s main sources of funding, linked to extortion, drug trafficking and illegal gold mining, according to security sources, who accuse the guerrilla of kidnapping thousands of people throughout the conflict.

Although six cycles have passed since Petro resumed negotiations with the ELN at the end of 2022, the process faces a crisis due to the government’s decision to move dialogue with the group’s military front beyond the negotiating table with a view to handing over its weapons and reintegration into society.

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The government delegation at the ELN dialogue table stated that the agreement to establish the Multilateral Donor Fund provides for funding for peacekeeping activities contained in the agenda, but in no way compensates for the suspension of kidnappings or the interruption of other specific actions included in the ceasefire.

“Human trafficking has no justification and its elimination is not the subject of any deal on the part of the Colombian state,” the government delegation said in a statement.

“We hope that the ELN will fulfill the commitments it has made to Colombian society and the international community and put an end to any form of kidnapping,” he added.

Negotiations by previous governments with the ELN, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, have failed to move forward due to its radical stance, loose chain of command and divisions within its ranks. (Reuters).