The National Liberation Army (ELN), the last guerrilla in arms in Colombia, has once again sat down at a negotiating table in search of a peace agreement, for the first time with a left-wing government, that of Gustavo Petro.
The delegations announced on December 17 that they had agreed to “suspend withholdings for economic purposes,” as the ELN refers to the extortionate kidnapping of civilians, at the close of the fifth cycle of negotiations in Mexico City, which unblocked the process. They had already agreed on a six-month ceasefire, starting on August 3, 2023, at the close of the third cycle of negotiations in Cuba, on June 9, in addition to an agreement on the participation of civil society in the process. . They are the most significant advances so far.
The dialogue stumbled at the end of October with the kidnapping, in the middle of the ceasefire, of the father of soccer player Luis Díaz, an action that shocked the country and put the focus on a crime highly repudiated by society to which the guerrilla has always been reluctant. to resign. The ELN released him after 12 days of captivity on November 9. The Government delegation has been emphatic in demanding the freedom of the rest of the kidnapped people, and that was one of the mandatory topics in the fifth cycle in Mexico City.
The negotiating teams of both parties established on Monday, November 21, 2022 on Cerro Ávila, on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, the resumption of the “political dialogue” that they had begun in March 2016, in the period of Juan Manuel Santos ( 2010-2018), and had suspended in January 2019, during the Iván Duque Administration (2018-2022), after a car bomb attack against a cadet school in Bogotá that left 23 dead.
The first cycle of dialogues took place in Caracas, the second in Mexico City, the third in Havana, the fourth returned to Venezuela and the fifth to Mexico. Cuba will once again host the sixth cycle starting on January 22, 2024.
Is the kidnapping a violation of the ceasefire?
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Kidnapping has been a recurring obstacle in successive negotiations with the ELN, which has not renounced this practice even after sitting down to talk with the Government. When the delegations announced the bilateral ceasefire on June 9, 2023, the guerrilla's chief negotiator, Pablo Beltrán, said that extortions and kidnappings – which he refers to as “taxes” and “withholdings” – are “finance operations” that were not yet part of what was agreed. Beyond the euphemisms that the guerrilla usually resorts to, and pending formal pronouncements from the verification mechanism, the kidnapping of civilians represents a violation of the signed document, which prohibits the “taking of hostages” within the framework of International Humanitarian Law. . With details still to be resolved, the crisis was resolved with the table's announcement, in December, of “the suspension of withholdings for economic purposes, according to the ELN, within the framework of the extension of the ceasefire scheduled for the end of January.” [de 2024]”
When did the peace process begin?
The Government of Juan Manuel Santos agreed on a negotiation agenda with the ELN, which was also disclosed in Caracas, in March 2016. Postponed by a tug-of-war over the issue of kidnapping, the public phase of the talks only began at early 2017 in an old tobacco farm near Quito, Ecuador. At that time, it started with the premise that the work sessions could also take place in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile or Cuba – in addition to having Norway as a guarantor country. The table was moved at the end of the Santos period to Havana, Cuba – which had already hosted the negotiation that led to the peace agreement with the FARC.
Iván Duque – a critic of the agreement with the FARC – inherited the negotiation with the ELN, but ended it when he had been in power for a semester after the attack against a cadet school in Bogotá that caused 23 deaths, in January 2019. The breakup brought diplomatic repercussions for Havana. Duque ignored the protocols signed by the parties – including the guarantor countries – which left the ELN delegation in Cuba in limbo. The island refused to extradite them, protected by the protocols. When Donald Trump's Government in the United States designated Cuba as a “State sponsor of terrorism” in January 2021, he justified his decision based on Duque's claims.
The Petro Government proposed to resume the dialogues, from the point where they were suspended, as soon as it came to power, on August 7, 2022. “We start from what already exists, from what has already been agreed, we are not inventing anything,” said the then High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda. “In May 2025, the decades-long war between ELN and the State will definitively cease,” President Gustavo Petro predicted.
What is the negotiation agenda?
At the end of the second cycle of negotiations, the parties announced the New Agenda of Peace Dialogues, which includes the following points:
- The participation of society in the construction of peace
- Democracy for peace
- Transformations for peace
- Victims
- End of the armed conflict
- General execution plan of the agreements between the National Government and the ELN
What are the conditions of the ceasefire?
At the end of the third cycle of negotiations, the parties announced an unprecedented six-month ceasefire – “bilateral, national and temporary” –, pending a definitive truce that will provide relief to the communities hardest hit by the armed conflict. The agreed cessation is in full force, for 180 days, starting on August 3, 2023. The monitoring and verification mechanisms include the participation of the UN and the Catholic Church. The delegations have agreed to create the conditions to extend this ceasefire.
What are the guarantor countries?
The negotiation 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 parties also contemplate that the United States could eventually have a special envoy at the table, and Vice President Francia Márquez invited South Africa to join the guarantor countries on a visit to the African country. Those two ideas have not materialized for now.
What are the venues for the negotiations with the ELN?
The reinstatement of the dialogues was made official on Monday, November 21, 2022 in a hotel at the top of Ávila Hill, near Caracas. But Venezuela, one of the guarantor countries, was just the starting point, not a permanent headquarters. The second cycle of talks was held in Mexico, another of the guarantor countries, and the third in Cuba, between May 2 and June 9, 2023. The fourth cycle returned to Venezuela, from August 14 to September 4 , and the fifth to Mexico, from November 30 to December 17. The fifth will be in Cuba starting January 22, 2024. In the process with the Santos Government, a rotating headquarters between several Latin American countries was already contemplated.
Who are the negotiators?
The new head of the Government delegation since December 2023 is Vera Grabe, a 72-year-old anthropologist, former guerrilla and former senator for the M-19 Democratic Alliance, the same group in which President Petro served in his youth. Grabe replaces another historical figure of the M-19, Otty Patiño, after he became the high commissioner for Peace. Grabe is accompanied by other figures close to the president such as senators Iván Cepeda and María José Pizarro, but also representatives of right-wing sectors, such as the cattle leader José Félix Lafaurie, or from the military, such as retired colonel Álvaro Matallana and admiral Orlando Romero. The ELN delegation is headed by old acquaintances such as Pablo Beltrán, Aureliano Carbonell and Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista (Gabino).
When was the ELN born?
The National Liberation Army 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 characterized the Guevarist group. Among them, Manuel Pérez (Alfamén, Zaragoza, 1943), who came to command the ELN until his death due to natural causes in 1998.
What is the ELN doing currently?
The ELN has some 2,350 combatants and a presence in regions such as the departments of Norte de Santander and Arauca, bordering Venezuela, in the northeast of Colombia, as well as in Nariño and Chocó, in the west, near the Pacific Rim. In recent years it has been strengthened militarily, it has expanded and its presence on the Venezuelan side of the border is documented. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch have denounced that the Venezuelan security forces have been their accomplices, to the point of carrying out “joint operations” with the ELN. That is why Venezuela's role emerges as a key factor in any negotiation.
What was the first peace agreement in Colombia?
Different Colombian governments have negotiated with various armed actors in search of reaching peace agreements. The first major peace agreement between a guerrilla and the Colombian State was signed on March 9, 1990 in Caloto, Cauca, with the M-19. The Democratic Alliance M-19, the political movement that emerged from the guerrillas that had just laid down their weapons, played a leading role in the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1991 political charter.
The other major peace agreement with a guerrilla was signed with the FARC on November 24, 2016. The disarmament of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, today converted into a political party with representation in Congress, left the ELN as the last guerrilla in arms in the country.
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