Colombia: the 180-day ceasefire between the government and the ELN guerrillas enters into force

First modification: 08/04/2023 – 00:31

4 min

From this August 3 to January 29, 2024, the Colombian State and the ELN agreed to lay down their weapons and not undertake offensive actions against each other, in addition, both promised not to violate the norms of International Humanitarian Law with your actions.

“As of 00:00 today, August 3, 2023, the bilateral, national and temporary cessation between the Colombian State and the National Liberation Army came into force,” said the office of the High Commissioner for the Peace of the Colombian government, through a publication on their social networks.

In Bogotá, President Gustavo Petro led a symbolic act for the ceasefire agreement in a conflict that the Colombian president described as an “inherited war” from which it was necessary, without forgetting, to turn the page and direct the country towards “a future that has to be peaceful”.

The act also marked the opening of the National Participation Committee (CNP), a forum resulting from the three rounds of talks between the Government and the guerrillas that will allow the participation of civil society in the Colombian peace process. L

The negotiating leaders of each delegation; Otty Patiño as representative of the State of Colombia and ‘Pablo Beltrán’ as chief negotiator of the ELN guerrilla, underscored the willingness of all parties to comply with the pact.

“Today a ceasefire begins, with one characteristic: that it has a verification mechanism. There is a will on both sides to comply with it,” stressed the ELN representative, whose given name is Israel Ramírez and who had been there for more than three decades. without stepping on the ground of the Colombian capital, so according to ‘Pablo Beltrán’, his visit represents that the armed group “believes in the process”.

The United Nations will monitor compliance with the agreement

The peace process in Colombia is one of the few issues that generates consensus among the member states of the United Nations, especially within the Security Council. For this reason, on August 2, the members of the UN executing agency unanimously approved the extension of the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia.

The Verification Mission, which was requested by the Petro Administration, will deploy a contingent of 68 observers who will closely monitor the respect of both parties for the temporary cessation of hostilities, according to the spokesman for the United Nations Secretary General, Farhan Haq. .

On the other hand, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, celebrated the start of the temporary ceasefire in Colombian territory, expecting that the signatory parties “adhere in good faith” to the stipulated agreements, and that these may “reduce significantly violence and increase confidence at the peace negotiating table”, referring to the talks that still exist between both parties to achieve a permanent cessation of hostilities.

A temporary ceasefire seeking a final peace agreement after decades of war

In the midst of the celebrations for an unprecedented act with that guerrilla, the Colombian government does not take its finger off the line: Colombia needs “total peace.”

“We will not get up from the table until the end of the armed conflict is achieved and we are going to combine speed and rigor to reach the final agreement (…) Let’s do it quickly because the people are suffering,” Otty Patiño stressed during the ceremony held in Bogotá, in where he added that “if it is possible to overcome the conflict”, although only with the full participation and willingness of all those involved in it.

The ceasefire with the ELN is probably the greatest triumph of the commitment to “total peace” of the government headed by Gustavo Petro. This policy, which entered Colombian legislation on November 4, 2022 through Law 418, allows the Colombian Executive “to advance negotiations with illegal armed groups.”

Despite generating division in the opinions of citizens and the political opposition, the ambitious policy of the leftist president seeks to add more than 22 armed groups -among which is the ELN, the Clan del Golfo and various dissidents of the extinct FARC- to put an end to the hostilities and put an end to just over six decades of war, whose firmest step was taken after the signing of the peace process between the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC in 2016.

With EFE and local media