The National Liberation Army (ELN), known as the last guerrilla in Colombia, formalized this Tuesday (4) in Caracas the resumption of peace negotiations with the country’s government. The dialogue had been suspended in 2019 by former president Iván Duque and will return under Gustavo Petro, who took office in August.
Negotiations will resume after the first week of November, according to a statement issued by the parties and read after a meeting in the Venezuelan capital. Bogotá, already with Petro in the presidency, recently re-established diplomatic relations with the neighboring country.
In addition to the return of the so-called discussion table, the text reports the decision to “retake all the agreements and advances achieved since the signing of the agenda on March 30, 2016”, in reference to the opening date of the peace talks between the government and the ELN.
“We are going to restart without changing what was agreed,” said Antonio García, one of the group’s commanders. According to him, the meetings will be held in rotating locations between three countries that would be guarantors of the agreement —Venezuela, Cuba and Norway—, without there having been a definition of where the first round will take place.
Chile and Spain, mentioned above as possible mediators, will not participate at this time. The previous talks took place initially in Ecuador and later in Cuba.
“For the government and the ELN, the participation of society will be essential in the changes that Colombia needs to build peace,” the parties said in the statement. According to the group, the way to do so involves “attacking the causes of the armed conflict”, not just laying down arms, citing social inequality and the lack of democracy.
Petro, the country’s first leftist president, reactivated contacts with the ELN shortly after taking office on August 7. Negotiations between the parties were suspended by Duque in 2019 after an attack on a police school that left 22 dead, in addition to the attacker.
Since then, ELN delegates have spent this period in Cuba, from where they left for Venezuela last Sunday (2). Danilo Rueda, Bogotá’s high commissioner for peace, had traveled to Havana days after the government took office to meet with the group’s leadership.
Garcia highlighted Petro’s willingness to resume negotiations. “With this opportunity, Colombia’s new political circumstances allowed the dialogue to resume.”
Last Wednesday (28), Bogotá announced that at least ten armed groups in the country, including dissident FARC forces and the criminal faction Clan del Golfo, had agreed to join a unilateral ceasefire. Asked on Tuesday about the proximity of such a bilateral agreement, the ELN leader said that the parties are still at the stage of rebuilding trust, but that whatever is agreed will be fulfilled.
Since the campaign, the newly sworn in Petro had promised to seek what he called “total peace” with these armed groups, fully implementing a peace agreement signed in 2016 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and establishing new arrangements with other guerrillas.
Upon returning from the UN General Assembly, the president said that “in a matter of days” the possibility of a ceasefire should be opened, allowing the “beginning of the end of violence” in the country.
This Tuesday, the United Nations celebrated the return of talks with the ELN. Secretary-General António Guterres urged the parties “to make the most of this opportunity to end a deadly dispute” and made himself available.
Colombia has accumulated a six-decade conflict that has killed at least 450,000 people. Illegal armed groups count around 6,000 fighters in their ranks, according to security forces.
The ELN, founded in 1964 by unionists, students and religious from the radical left, has an estimated 2,500 members. The group, accused of financing itself with drug trafficking, mining, kidnappings and extortion, has a presence on the border with Venezuela. Although with less firepower than the former FARC, the guerrillas have a broader and more diverse social base and a more decentralized command, despite having spokespeople such as Garcia.
Petro, himself a former member of the M-19 urban guerrilla, has said his government would be willing to offer reduced sentences to gang members who deliver illicit goods and provide information about trafficking. “The peace office is studying legal mechanisms to allow the transition of armed groups to the rule of law,” Rueda said.
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