The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has nominated Vatican City as the headquarters for a next round of peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla. “I would be very interested (…) for many reasons that have to do with the history of the ELN itself,” the president told journalists in San Pedro Square itself, after meeting this Friday in a private audience with the Pope Francis in the Holy See.
“It is possible that we will make a round here, we will talk to the ELN,” Petro explained in his statements to the press at the end of the meeting, the first with Francisco since he came to power. The Catholic Church has been a great support in all the peace efforts that have been developed in Colombia, the president thanked. “The Pope agrees that we take deeper steps in the peace agreements,” he assured. The South American country has been present on the pope's agenda. Francisco asked for the immediate release of all those kidnapped two weeks ago, a month ago he had already met to talk about peace in Colombia with the vice president, Francia Márquez, and a year ago he did so with the first lady, Verónica Alcocer.
The last guerrilla in arms in Colombia has once again sat down in search of a peace agreement, but for the first time it does so with a left-wing government, that of Petro. This table is the most advanced within the framework of total peace, the flagship policy of the Colombian president. The delegations have already held five cycles of dialogue in Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, and Havana will once again host the sixth cycle starting next January 22. In an unprecedented step, the guerrilla has committed to suspending the kidnapping of civilians, one of its crimes most condemned by society. A six-month ceasefire that expires this month also remains in effect, awaiting extension. They are the most significant advances so far.
The negotiation, which has had the support of both the UN and the Catholic Church from the beginning, began with Cuba, Norway and Venezuela as guarantor countries. As part of its first agreements, the dialogue table invited Brazil, Chile and Mexico to join with the status of guarantor countries, while Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain are accompanying countries in the process.
The ELN was born in 1964 inspired by the Cuban revolution and marked by a profound religious influence. Several of its founders – union members, students and farmers – were trained on the Caribbean island. Very soon they were joined by the Colombian priest Camilo Torres (1929-1966), who died in one of the first combats. Priest Torres, along with three other Spanish priests who were exponents of Liberation Theology who later followed in his footsteps, sealed the confluence between Christianity and Marxism that has historically characterized the Guevarist group.
Colombia seeks to extinguish a degraded armed conflict that has involved guerrillas, paramilitary groups and state forces. Pope Francis already visited the country in September 2017, with the purpose of supporting the process of reconciliation of society and the political class, very divided after the signing of the peace agreement between the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC guerrilla, today disarmed and converted into a political party with a bench in Congress.
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After the hiatus that Iván Duque's four-year term entailed in peace efforts, Petro has resumed dialogues with different armed groups as part of total peace. The president – who had already visited Francisco in the Holy See as a candidate in the middle of the campaign – intends to negotiate with the ELN and at least a part of the FARC dissidents who left that peace process, in addition to advancing a policy of submission for other criminal groups, such as the Clan del Golfo, the largest drug trafficking gang.
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