Only five days after his inauguration, the Government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro formalized its intention to resume the failed peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), a process stopped in 2019 by the previous president Iván Duque and that now it could find a new impetus with the arrival of a left-wing ruler in the House of Nariño.
Here are some key points you should know:
End to a limbo of almost four years
The announcement of restart of the peace process in Havanaa, headquarters since 2018 of the dialogue between the Colombian Government and the ELN, put an end to the limbo in which the official talks with the guerrillas were found, the oldest still active in Latin America.
The formal dialogue between both parties began in 2017 in Quito, during the mandate of former President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), and a year later they were transferred to Havana, the site of the peace process between the Santos government and the former Armed Forces. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which culminated in the signing of a historic Peace Agreement in 2016.
Duque, successor to Santos in the Presidency, indefinitely suspended the Dialogue Table in the Cuban capital after an ELN attack against the Cadet School in Bogotá that left 22 dead and nearly 70 wounded. The Colombian government then demanded the immediate return of the guerrilla peace delegation, which Cuba refused, invoking the diplomatic protocols of the negotiations.
A former guerrilla president
The historic arrival of Petro, a former guerrilla of the disappeared April 19 Movement (M-19), at the Casa de Nariño marked a turn in the dialogues. Petro had already announced during his campaign the intention to unblock the path towards “total and lasting peace” initiated by Juan Manuel Santos, a strategy that also includes the implementation of the Agreement signed with the FARC in 2016.
As Petro declared last May, an understanding with the ELN could once again create a “climate of peace and democratic progress” in Colombia, although everything would depend on the will of the guerrillas, he said then.
The government took the step this August 12, sending an official delegation to Havana that included the new foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva, and the High Commissioner for Peace, Iván Danilo Rueda, to meet with the ELN delegation. Senior Cuban officials, Norwegian guarantors and representatives of the UN and the Colombian church also participated in the meeting.
“The participants in this first meeting are committed to doing our best to build the stable, lasting and sustainable peace that Colombia and humanity deserve,” Rueda emphasized in an official statement.
Signs of goodwill from a strengthened ELN
The extended hand of the Colombian government was reciprocated by the ELN shortly after the meeting in Havana. The guerrillas freed some nine hostages they were holding captive in the rural town of Tame (Arauca department), one of the most active areas in the conflict between the insurgents and the Colombian Army.
Although the government is not the same as it was three years ago, neither is the ELN. The rebel group has at least 2,500 troops and has extended its presence to nearby Venezuela, growing in strength and reach since 2019. Still, they have reaffirmed their willingness to seek a peaceful resolution based on agreements.
“The ELN maintains its system of political and military struggle and resistance, but also its full willingness to advance in a Peace Process that gives continuity to the Table of Conversations that began in Quito in February 2017,” said the ELN Central Command. last June.
Promising but still uncertain future
Although a possible end to the conflict is in sight, the announcement of the resumption of dialogue still leaves unanswered questions. None of the parties announced a tentative date for the return to the talks table and did not comment on the strategy to follow.
Nor did they advance on the issues to prioritize or whether they would focus on closing the issues left open by the abrupt interruption of the talks.
Other main questions are the guarantees and security of the guerrillas.
There is also the question of whether the ELN peace delegation, distant in age and limited by their exile in Cuba for years, will be able to exert the expected influence on the active members of the group. Previous peace attempts have been frustrated by internal differences.
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