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The delegation of the Colombian guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN) has already arrived in the Cuban capital of Havana, where it will hold the third cycle of peace talks with the Colombian government next month. The negotiations are expected to focus on a bilateral ceasefire, humanitarian relief and civil society participation in the process.
The ELN negotiating delegation arrived in Cuba, as confirmed on Twitter this Friday, April 28. It published a photo of eight of its members, including chief negotiator Pablo Beltrán, next to the statue of the father of Venezuelan independence, Francisco de Miranda. A large part of the Colombian government delegation, headed by its chief negotiator, José Otty Patiño, is also in Havana but no formal meetings have been organized until the official start of the talks on Tuesday, May 2.
This third cycle of negotiations between the guerrilla group and the government will focus on humanitarian relief, the participation of civil society in the process, and the bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities between the Army and the ELN.
The start of the third cycle has been delayed due to differences in the negotiating positions of both parties and violent actions. At the end of March, an ELN attack on an army unit left 10 dead. Likewise, the Colombian government has decided to continue the negotiations.
Hopes for a bilateral ceasefire
In the eight months that Gustavo Petro’s government has been in Colombia, the violence generated by the ELN and other armed groups has not been reduced. In Cuba, they will seek to negotiate a bilateral ceasefire in addition to the participation of civil society in the peace process, as well as humanitarian actions in the regions of the most intense fighting. The objective is that the affected communities can see an improvement in their living conditions and participate in the peace process.
In the cycle to be held in Havana and which begins on May 2, we will work on:
1. The participation of society.
2. Bilateral Cessation.
3. Humanitarian actions and dynamics.#THE N #Colombia #Peace– ELN Delegation (@DelegacionEln) April 25, 2023
Stopping the most immediate violence is the main goal of Petro and his negotiating delegation. However, this attempt has already failed in the past, when it tried to maintain a bilateral cessation of hostilities for six months from January 1, 2023, cut short by the ELN’s subsequent declaration that such an agreement did not exist.
The head of state also hopes to reach a cessation of hostilities to stop, among other things, extortion, the persecution of communities and forced recruitment.
“The issue of forced recruitment is a crime, and there is one in the sense that these children arrive there due to circumstances that do not consult their rights or their will, in that sense we can talk about there being recruitment, and of course we must do everything possible to separate these children from the war. At that age, of course, no child should be in the war,” chief negotiator Otty Patiño told the press.
However, the top commander of the ELN, Antonio García, affirmed that there are no minors within the ranks of his group.
Three rounds of dialogues
Negotiations between the Colombian government and the ELN resumed after the arrival of Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president of Colombia, who aims for “total peace” with the resumption of talks with the armed forces that are still active in the country as the spearhead of his project.
The first round of talks between the Executive and the guerrillas took place in November 2022 in Caracas and concluded with an agreement to promote humanitarian relief in some of the regions hardest hit by the violence of the conflict.
During the second cycle, which began in February in Mexico City, part of the government recognized the political status of the ELN as a “rebel armed organization.” Progress was also made regarding the reach of an agreement for a bilateral ceasefire.
The choice of Cuba as the venue for the third round of discussions is symbolic. In 2016, it was on the island that the agreement between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was signed, which was then the largest guerrilla group in the country.
The last Colombian guerrilla
The ELN was founded in 1964 as an armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution and with the ambition of seizing power by force to establish a “democratic and popular government.” On six occasions attempts have been made to seal peace between the organization and the State, without success.
It is also in Cuba that the government of Iván Duque, Petro’s predecessor, and the ELN were negotiating a potential peace agreement when an Eleno guerrilla rammed a car bomb into a cadet school in Bogotá, leaving 23 dead. The event abruptly interrupted the dialogue and left the chief guerrilla negotiators stranded in Cuba, without guarantees that they would not be detained upon arrival in Colombia, thus failing to comply with one of the points that the dialogues supported.
Unlike the extinct FARC, the ELN does not have such a centralized command, which makes negotiations and respect for ceasefires more difficult. Currently, the armed group operates in more than 200 municipalities in Colombia and could have between 2,000 and 4,000 members, according to authorities.
With EFE and local media
