Government of Cuba denies presence of members of the ELN in its territory

Published at: 24/01/2025 09:57 PM

The Government of Cuba assured this Friday, January 24, that there are no members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) or its Central Command in its territory, and explained that they left the country months ago, when the sixth cycle of the Peace Dialogue Table between that armed group and the Colombian Government ended, the Telesur website reported.

Through the social network X, the director general of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Eugenio Martíne z, stated: “I categorically confirm that in Cuba there are no members of the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN), nor of its Central Command.”

He asserted that “the mention of Cuba as one of the countries where they could be is an insinuation without evidence, because there are none.”

“All the members of the ELN left Cuba months ago, at the end of the Sixth Cycle of the Peace Dialogue Table,” Martínez said.

Last Wednesday, the 22nd, the Attorney General's Office of Colombia reported that it reactivated the arrest warrants against 31 leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and based the decision on the basis of human rights violations and the humanitarian crisis caused in the Catatumbo region by the violent acts committed and recognized by that armed group.

In this context, the Attorney General of Colombia, Luz Adriana Camargo, stated during a press conference that the international mechanisms of Interpol would be used to request the capture and extradition of those leaders “in Cuba or wherever they are,” she said.

For her part, the head of the government delegation at the Dialogue Table, Vera Grabe, stated that in Cuba there are no leaders of the ELN authorized to negotiate peace.

Grabe said: “Our delegation affirms that, to date, and according to official information, there are no representatives or persons authorized to participate in the peace process belonging to the ELN.”

The Dialogue Table set up by the Government of Colombia and the ELN in 2022, which has met in Havana, Caracas and Mexico City, is suspended due to the armed group's offensive in the Catatumbo region, which has left between 60 and 80 dead.

In 2019, after a bomb attack in Bogotá, claimed by the ELN, the then Colombian president, Iván Duque, requested to Cuba the extradition of leaders of the armed group who were participating in previous peace talks, which were currently in session in Havana.

The Cuban Government rejected the request, considering its role as a guarantor in peace talks, a responsibility that involves offering security guarantees to the participants in the negotiations, based on compliance with signed international protocols to facilitate peace processes.

Faced with the refusal of the Caribbean nation, Duque asked the United States to include Cuba in the spurious list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism.

Cuba's position of principle on this issue generated a fierce campaign against the Cuban Revolution on the part of the Colombian right and the U.S. Administration.