Colombian President Ivan Duque on July 16 signed a constitutional amendment that prevents kidnapping and drug trafficking from being considered political crimes, making those who have committed such crimes or in any way financed or supported them ineligible for future amnesties or pardons. The amendment is the latest in a series of efforts by the Duque administration to place legal and political roadblocks in the path of future peace deals with militants. In January, the government broke off talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) following the bombing of a police academy, and in February, it formally classified the ELN, the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces and the Popular Liberation Army as criminal groups; this stripped the ELN of the recognition as a political group that it had enjoyed since 1997. ...
