Colombia explores conditions to reactivate peace talks with ELN

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia continues to seek conditions to reactivate peace dialogues with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas. Without the armed group having so far made progress in complying with the conditions imposed by President Iván Duque, the local government announced this Sunday.

With the endorsement of the Holy See, through the Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignor Luis Mariano Montemayor, the United Nations, and the Mission to Support the Peace Process of the Organization of American States (OAS), Colombia has verified in the last 17 months “the real will for peace and reintegration into civilian life” of the guerrillas.

The High Commissioner for Peace, Miguel Ceballos, announced today that the Government “articulated an indirect space of approximation and exploration”. The Holy See and the UN participated, although without establishing a direct dialogue between members of the ELN and representatives of the Government.

During the exploratory period, 28 meetings were held, 22 of them at the Apostolic Nunciature in Bogota and six at the Nariño Palace (seat of the Executive), as well as four trips to Havana, Cuba, where a delegation of that guerrilla group has been staying for two years when the talks came to a standstill.

Colombian President Iván Duque attended all six meetings at the Palacio de Nariño and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, also participated in four of them.

EXPLORATION WITHOUT COMMITMENTS BY THE ELN

In one of the trips to Havana, the special envoys of the Government explored “the position of the ELN with respect to different issues related to International Humanitarian Law, within the framework of the conditions demanded by the National Government to cease kidnapping, hand over all hostages and cease criminal acts”.

In addition, there were approaches with the guerrilla delegates on the island to find “options to build an architecture for an eventual space for dialogue, after the fulfillment of the conditions established by the Government”.

However, “to date, the ELN has not advanced in the necessary decisions that would make a space for dialogue possible, by refusing to comply with the conditions established by President Iván Duque”, as warned by the Government.

The ELN started in February 2017 in Quito peace negotiations with the former Colombian government that in May 2018 were transferred to Havana, where the last round of dialogue concluded without progress in early August of the same year.

President Duque conditioned the continuity of the peace talks on the group ceasing kidnapping and releasing the people it is holding captive, which the guerrilla refuses to comply with.