The ceasefire signed this Friday by the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) does not contemplate the suspension of kidnappings and extortions carried out by the guerrillas, as clarified by the chief negotiator of the armed group, Pablo Beltrán. “The ELN’s financial operations began to be discussed here, but that discussion did not end. It will continue to be discussed, they did not enter into these protocols ”, commented the former commander in chief of the organization. The operations cover what the guerrillas call “withholdings”, in reference to kidnappings, and as “taxes”, in reference to extortion of the inhabitants of the territories where they have a presence.
“For you, what are ELN finances?” Beltrán responded rhetorically to a journalist who asked him about the term. Later, he has exemplified activities such as “taxes” and has reported that they will be maintained “for now.” The intention, according to the chief negotiator, is that these operations be suspended in the future, in another agreement. Meanwhile, he hopes that actions such as “withholdings” can be avoided, even if they are not part of the cessation: “If they are not necessary, they will not be done.”
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, signed the agreement this Friday in Havana, as part of the third cycle of negotiations. He did it together with the commander in chief of the ELN, Antonio García, and under the watchful eye of the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel. “We have come to give Colombia, and that is why we were elected, these possibilities for peace,” Petro celebrated at the ceremony. It was a photo that will go down in history as the first great achievement of total peace, the left-wing president’s banner policy to pacify the country. The ELN is not a minor group: it is the oldest guerrilla in Latin America, with a strong symbolic weight, and operates in 22 of Colombia’s 32 departments, according to the Ombudsman’s Office.
The agreement contemplates a gradual implementation of the ceasefire. The enlistment stage is immediate, while the end of offensive operations begins on July 6 until reaching full validity, of 180 days, as of August 3. The monitoring and verification mechanisms —with the support of the UN, the Catholic Church and guarantor countries— will be installed in the coming days and weeks, so that the ceasefire should be in place throughout the Colombian territory, so remainder of 2023. It has the explicit support of both parties, unlike the incident at the beginning of the year, when the ELN denied the bilateral ceasefire that the president had announced in December.
The main expectation is that the ceasefire guarantees an end to the confrontations between the State and the ELN. This guerrilla is still active and attacks with some frequency: in March, an attack on an Army base killed nine soldiers and left eight wounded. One challenge is for the decisions of the negotiating leadership to be complied with by all fronts, including those that operate with some degree of independence. “We are one voice and we represent the armed rebellion of the Colombian people,” Antonio García, commander-in-chief since 2021, assured this Friday. Another is that the reduction in combat that a ceasefire produces also leads to less violence against the civil society, which finds itself in the midst of conflicts between armed groups, such as those of the ELN against the Clan del Golfo in Chocó (Colombian Pacific) or against dissidents of the extinct FARC in Arauca (border with Venezuela).
Senator Iván Cépeda, for his part, has highlighted on Twitter that the agreement will guarantee the participation of civil society in the peace process. “We created the National Participation Committee; an inclusive mechanism of 30 sectors and 80 representatives so that, in a democratic way, it is designed how the participation of society will take off throughout the country”, explained the congressman. Likewise, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace has pointed out that the agreement should be focused “on creating conditions for the civilian population to exercise their rights and freedoms,” in line with historical demands for social justice.
newsletter
Analysis of current affairs and the best stories from Colombia, every week in your mailbox
RECEIVE THE
subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the key information on the country’s current affairs.
#ELN #chief #negotiator #affirms #suspension #kidnappings #extortions #included #ceasefire