They arrest the head of the ELN, the intellectual author of the attack on the Police School in Colombia

Bogotá, March 1 (EFE).- The Colombian authorities arrested Arturo Ordóñez, alias "El Elefante", head of the ELN urban front and one of the intellectual authors of the attack against the Police School in Bogotá that left 22 cadets dead, official sources reported this Friday.

"The terrorist group ELN has been dealt a very strong blow. Today, in an impeccable operation by Cecoes, with the intelligence of the military forces, Arturo Ordóñez, alias 'El Elefante', the head of the entire urban front, has been captured. of the ELN," said the president of Colombia, Iván Duque.

This is what the president said during a statement in Envigado, in the department of Antioquia (northwest), where he explained that "El Elefante" joined the guerrilla 37 years ago and his arrest was carried out by members of the Joint Special Operations Command (Cecoes).

"This is a blow to one of the most dangerous criminals that our country has," said Duque, after which he detailed that the "criminal has been the one who has masterminded a large part of the attacks of that terrorist group in the national territory."

"He is one of the intellectual authors of the attack at the Francisco de Paula Santander School"Duque stated about the detainee's relationship with the attack perpetrated by the ELN with a car bomb on January 17 in Bogotá and that left 22 cadets dead, among them an Ecuadorian, and 66 more people injured.

In addition to this attack, he is accused of recruiting minors and carrying out attacks in the departments of Antioquia, Cundinamarca and Tolima, as well as in Bogotá.

One day after the attack, the Colombian head of state reactivated the arrest warrants for the ELN negotiators in the talks that that group was holding with the Government and asked Cuba, the venue for the talks, to hand them over.

In response to the request, the Cuban Government referred to the protocols of the process and since then Duque has reiterated the importance of Havana handing over the negotiators to bring them to justice.

Peace talks with the ELN began in February 2017 in Quito and in May of last year they were transferred to Havana, where the last round concluded without tangible results on August 3, four days before Duque's inauguration.