Petro, who will assume the Presidency on August 7, said not only to the National Liberation Army (ELN) “but to all the armed groups in force, that the time for peace has arrived. What I request is a ceasefire that will be bilateral.”
Following the election of Gustavo Petro on June 19, the rebels declared their “full disposition” to negotiate with the first leftist government in Colombia’s history.
During his presidency, Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) held peace talks with the ELN, but his successor, the outgoing right-wing president Ivan Dukeburied them after a brutal attack on a police school that left 22 dead, in addition to the aggressor.
Peace negotiations that were cut short
Since then, the Colombian government has demanded that this guerrilla -which emerged in 1964 after the cuban revolution – That he completely cease his attacks in order to resume talks that were being held in Havana. Duque even pressured Cuba to capture and hand over the ELN negotiating team.
But Cuba appealed to the protocols signed by the parties to guarantee the return of the rebels to their country if the peace process failed, which led to a deterioration of bilateral relations. Norway was the guarantor of those agreements.
“You have to recognize the protocols in the first place. It is what allows the countries that were helping in that negotiation to do it again and the table can be set up again,” said Gustavo Petro.
Although the peace pact that demobilized the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2017 eased the political violenceColombia is experiencing a sharp resurgence of violence on account of armed groups that profit from the drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Gustavo Petro said that his offer to the ELN and other armed organizations contemplates “judicial negotiations, in most cases, and political negotiations” in some others “to end the war in Colombia.”
Despite the hard blows it has received, the ELN is expanding and today has 2,500 members, according to official figures. At the time of the negotiations, its foot of force was about 1,800 rebels who exert strong influence in the Pacific region and on the border with Venezuela.
Source: Ambito
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