The ELN denies any connection to Senator Uribe's assassination and accuses Petro of "blatantly lying."

The president denies having accused the ELN and reiterates that the evidence points to the Second Marquetalia.

MADRID, 19 (EUROPA PRESS)

The commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group, Antonio García, denied this Monday any responsibility of the armed group in the June 7 attack in Bogotá against the conservative senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe, who finally died just over a week ago, after Colombian President Gustavo Petro had pointed to the ELN on several occasions as a "probable" perpetrator of the murder.

"The ELN is accused by the president of an act it didn't commit. Because the ELN, when it does something, has the courage to respond," he asserted in a statement, accusing the Colombian president of "daring to lie blatantly, saying that the ELN is involved in drug trafficking."

García echoed Petro's words last week when he stated: "The ELN is also murdering Colombians here. And it's likely, though I can't confirm, that they are the perpetrators of the murder of Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay for financial gain."

In this sense, he considered that with these statements, which he described as "tongue-twisters or truth-twisters," the president "is trying to leave it in people's minds that the ELN was the perpetrator of the assassination" of the Democratic Center presidential candidate.

"Just like that, and as if by the charm of a few words strung together in a tongue twister," he added, after criticizing Petro for "being aware that (the authorship) hasn't been confirmed (and) not waiting for the investigation."

The ELN leader also maintained that the president "is undoubtedly lending himself to North American imperialist plans" and that "he is paying the Americans something with these lies," while urging him to "be responsible with history and not be a star for the disinformation media."

Furthermore, he has denounced that the "pain (for Uribe's death) is being manipulated, (...) maliciously trying to blame it on the ELN" as well as to obtain electoral gain and has pointed out that the father of the victim, the former politician Miguel Uribe Londoño, "due to his links and actions, 'non sanctas', with or against some emerald miners ended up putting his son at serious risk."

For his part, Petro has assured on his account on the social network X that he has "never" made such accusations and has urged the armed group to "read more than the press, directly (their) speeches."

"I'm not just talking. The evidence points to a path toward the Second Marquetalia, based in Venezuela and Colombia; it's likely that they paid the Second Marquetalia to assassinate the senator," he said of this dissident group within the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Petro did affirm, however, that the two armed groups "are engaged in open war against the government ; they are part of an armed opposition. "Both are focused on illicit economies; they have entered into a war with each other, following the trap the ELN set for the Second Marquetalia in Venezuelan territory," he concluded.

In early August, the Second Marquetalia reported being the victim of an ambush by the ELN, accusing it of carrying out an explosive attack when the two groups were about to meet, killing one of its leaders, José Sierra Sabogal, alias "Zarco Aldinever," who Bogotá has linked to the assassination of Senator Uribe.