Colombia’s ELN rebels on Monday justified last week’s terrorist attack in Bogota that cost the lives of 21 people as “legal within war law.”
In a statement, the guerrillas did not assume explicit responsibility for the attack on the General Santander police academy, but said “the realized operation on such installations and forces is legal within war law.”
ELN leadership
The guerrillas said that “in our camps, that are bombed in the case of any neglect, combatants and officials are also trained.”
According to the ELN leadership, the military bombed guerrilla camps on Christmas day when the rebels were upholding a unilateral ceasefire.
ELN leadership
The ELN asked President Ivan Duque, who ended peace talks on Friday, to rethink his position on refusing to talk to the guerrillas, whose leaders have been in Cuba for talks since last year and have repeatedly urged the president to resume peace talks he suspended when taking office in August last year.
ELN leadership
The attack on the police academy further deepened divisions in Colombian society where the majority of people supported a negotiated end to the 54-year-old armed conflict ahead of the attack, but were opposed by Duque and his conservative and far-right political allies.