A ceasefire agreement between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas was signed in Havana, capital of Cuba, this Friday (9). The signing of the agreement was attended by the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and the top commander of the guerrilla group, Antonio García.
The agreement provides for a national and temporary six-month ceasefire, which will take effect on August 3 of this year, according to the text read out by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres praised the agreement and said it represented “important steps that give hope to the Colombian people, especially the communities most affected by the conflict”. The agreement also establishes the creation of a communication channel between the parties, with the support of a UN special representative in Colombia.
On Thursday (8), the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia, Danilo Rueda, had already announced that both parties had reached a national ceasefire agreement. “There will be a national ceasefire and at the same time we will have territorial impact scenarios,” he told Colombia Today Radio.
Rueda went on to say that “this ceasefire will have very concrete effects in the territories, it will include educational processes and guarantees to facilitate the reduction of anxiety among the inhabitants of various territories of the country”.
Peace talks with the ELN were initiated in 2016 by then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), but were suspended in 2019 by his successor, Iván Duque (2018-2022). Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla who became Colombia’s first left-wing president in August 2022, promised to seek “total peace” in the country and resumed talks with the ELN.
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