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August 20th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : The government laid a trap for the people when it said it was ready to initiate peace talks with the ELN and then signaled that additional conditions were required that were not part of the accord reached between the government and the ELN said former Congressman and ELN captive Odin Sanchez.
Colombia’s second-largest leftist guerrilla, the National Liberation Army (ELN), released a video as evidence that Odin Sanchez, a former Congressman is alive. Odin Sanchez handed himself to the ELN in April to secure the release of his brother, former Choco State Governor Patrocinio Sanchez in April is alive.
The release of the video followed repeated demands from the side of the administration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos that the ELN releases all hostages before it would be possible to launch official peace talks.
In the video that surfaced on Thursday, Odin Sanchez urges President Juan Manuel Santos to resume talks with the ELN. Odin commented on his captivity, saying that he was living in “fourth world like conditions” which are inhumane and unbearable.
However, Odin Sanchez also lashed out at the government, saying: “The government laid a trap for the people when it said it was ready to initiate conversations and then signaled that other conditions were required, like the liberation of those who are kidnapped, something that wasn’t fully agreed to”. The family of Odin Sanchez expressed relief over the video and urged President Santos to resume talks with the ELN as soon as possible.
In March representatives of the Colombian government and the ELN signed a comprehensive accord on the launch of official peace talks. The accord was signed in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. The parties agreed to launch official peace talks, parallel to the peace talks between the government and the FARC-EP in May. While the accord is comprehensive, non of its paragraphs suggested that the release of prisoners held by the ELN or the government was a precondition to launching the official peace talks.
The official talks were, however, not launched in May. In June the plans to launch the talks stalled when the government demanded that the ELN release all of its “hostages” before it would be possible to launch formal peace talks.
A source close to the ELN reported to nsnbc that the ELN considers its so-called hostages as comparable to ELN prisoners in Colombian prisons and stressed that the ELN did not make the release of all of its members held in Colombian prisons a precondition for talks either.
Ex ELN members Gerardo Bermudez and Carlos Velandia chosen as deputies to get official peace talks started.
In July the government made a tentative attempt to restart the talks by delegating two former ELN members, Gerardo Bermudez and the recently detained Carlos Velandia, as mediators.
The back-channel talks have, however, been shrouded in mystery as neither the government nor the ELN released any details about the negotiations. The release of the video with Odin Sanchez is by some considered as a sign of goodwill, while others, especially right-wingers, interpret it as an act of defiance and as a provocation.
Facing referendum on the peace accord between the FARC-EP and the government, many analysts suggest that Santos’ insistence on the release of ELN captives as a precondition for the launch of official talks with the ELN is designed to take the wind out of the sails who criticize Santos for unprecedented and unacceptable concessions to the FARC.
CH/L – nsnbc 20.08.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/08/20/captive-ex-congressman-denounces-governments-promise-of-peace-talks-with-eln-as-dishonest/
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