Antonio García, the ELN's top leader, challenged the version spread by President Gustavo Petro, after he claimed that the guerrilla group was behind the assassination of presidential candidate and Democratic Center senator Miguel Uribe Turbay.
That was the first response from a guerrilla leader after the president indicated that they were likely involved in the attack against the presidential candidate, who was shot three times during a public event in a park in western Bogotá.
"The ELN is also here murdering Colombians. And it's likely, though I can't confirm it, that it's the perpetrator of the murder of Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay for money," said the Colombian president, during a promotion ceremony at the General Santander School.
But García asserted that this"capriciousness" on Petro's part is compounded by the number of times he has dared to "blatantly lie" when he says the ELN is involved in drug trafficking operations. This assertion clashes with the thousands of operations the Public Force has carried out against the guerrilla group's illegal activities.
"It certainly lends itself to US imperialist plans, as the DEA and its agents have tried to implicate us without success, failing in these operations and traps. Petro is paying the gringos something with these lies," the ELN leader said in his response.
Although the Attorney General’s Office has not revealed its hypotheses regarding the assassination of Uribe Turbay, President Gustavo Petro has pointed to the two largest factions of the FARC dissidents—the one led by Iván Márquez and the one led by Iván Mordisco—and recently came out with the ELN theory. He added: “This opens a door to speak clearly to the country and not manipulate the event politically, as is being done, to gain electoral advantages. It is an event of a different nature, not political.”
President Petro, before starting his term, assured in an interview with SEMANA that the ELN would be over in three months, because he was going to sign"peace", but that process has had multiple difficulties and now the differences with one of the main leaders of that illegal armed group are clear.
