The Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) announced this Sunday a unilateral ceasefire from March 7 to 10 for the upcoming legislative elections to be held on March 8 in Colombia. 'The National Liberation Army sends a clear message to the Colombian people of respect for the free right to vote and non-interference in the current electoral process by declaring a unilateral ceasefire for the day of March 8,' the ELN reported in a statement. The guerrilla urged 'all its combat force' not to carry out offensive military operations against the State's Armed Forces. The organization specified that the ceasefire will begin at 00:00 on March 7 and end at 00:00 on March 10. The National Liberation Army is a Colombian insurgent guerrilla organization of extreme left that operates in Colombia and Venezuela. According to human rights defenders, it has caused forced displacements, confinements, selective homicides, arbitrary deprivations of liberty, damage from explosive devices, sexual violence, and recruitment of minors, mainly indigenous and Afro-Colombians. In terms of displacements, they forced 89,013 people to leave their homes in the convulsive region of Catatumbo, bordering Venezuela, due to clashes that began in January of last year between the ELN and the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents, according to data from the UN's annual report on Human Rights.
