Colombian Government and National Liberation Army initiate the cessation of hostilities

First modification: 07/07/2023 – 00:54

In a new development for the peace negotiations in Colombia, the Government, led by the leftist president Gustavo Petro, and the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) have communicated the suspension of offensive military actions as of Thursday, July 6. .

This measure had already been announced on Tuesday, when the ELN issued orders to its members to cease all offensive military activity and intelligence operations directed at the armed forces and the police. For his part, the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, affirmed that the Government will quickly issue a decree that will formalize the suspension of offensive actions.

This announcement marks the end of the armed confrontations prior to the start of the six-month bilateral ceasefire, negotiated on June 9 in Havana and scheduled to begin next month. The UN-supervised truce is aimed at ending crimes against civilians and officials, including kidnappings.

Its main purpose is to calm the complex situation on the ground, thus allowing an upcoming meeting between the Government and the guerrilla representatives in a more peaceful environment. The scheduled date for this meeting is August 14, that is, a few days after the formalization of the bilateral ceasefire.

Uncertainty Surrounds Cessation of Hostilities as Tensions Persist

Despite the announcement of the armistice, its implementation has faced difficulties from the start. Indeed, the complexity of the situation on the ground is reflected in the persistence of attacks and kidnappings carried out in the name of the ELN guerrillas.

On Wednesday, July 5, a father reported the kidnapping of a sergeant and her two minor children in the department of Arauca, located in the eastern part of the country, near the border with Venezuela.

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Given this worrying event, several organizations have expressed their position. The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace has urged the armed group to speak out and release the victims if they are responsible for their kidnapping. For his part, Defense Minister Velásquez has pointed out the “contradictions” of the armed group, emphasizing that it is impossible to talk about peace while the kidnapping of a mother and her children is perpetrated. The president of the Senate, Alexander López, has been even more direct in his statements, expressing the country’s “weariness” in the face of the “contradictory” messages and describing the (ELN) war as “absurd.”

Recent events have raised doubts about the effective implementation of the cessation of hostilities. The armed group, for its part, remains cautious and on alert. He has ordered his troops to keep all defense mechanisms active in case of attacks by government forces.

At the end of June, the Colombian Army carried out an operation in the department of Arauca, resulting in the death of six ELN combatants. Since then, its leader, Antonio García, has warned that the Army collaborates closely with the paramilitaries of the Clan del Golfo group. According to García, the military and paramilitaries carry out joint actions in key regions such as the department of Chocó, located in the northwest of the country. These accusations have led a faction of the ELN in this area to declare an “armed strike”, that is, a series of military actions.

Fifty years of dialogues: new peace efforts with the ELN in Colombia

The ELN, a guerrilla group that emerged as an inspiration to the Cuban revolution, has been a persistent actor in the Colombian conflict. According to the authorities, in 2022 it had 5,850 combatants. The group, which is on both Washington and Brussels lists of terrorist organizations, was founded in 1964. It has long been considered a smaller guerrilla group compared to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who were born that same year. and demobilized in 2016.

Throughout half a century, all governments have tried to negotiate with the ELN. To explain past failures, experts have highlighted the federal nature of the ELN, which operates less hierarchically than the FARC.

Peace negotiations launched in 2016 by former President Juan Manuel Santos were suspended in 2019 under his successor, hard-right Iván Duque, after an attack claimed by the ELN that claimed the lives of approximately twenty police officers in Bogotá.

However, the coming to power of Gustavo Petro on August 7, 2022, the first left-wing president in the country’s history, has generated a significant change in the situation. Petro, who in his youth was a guerrilla fighter, seeks to turn peace into a State policy and has promised to start negotiations with all the armed groups present in the country.

Under his leadership, the Colombian government has resumed negotiations with the last active guerrilla in the country. The talks began in November in Caracas and later moved to Mexico City in March, before arriving in Havana, Cuba.

AFP, local press