The delegations of the Government of Gustavo Petro and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have agreed to extend until next Monday, February 5, the ceasefire in force with the last armed guerrilla in Colombia, which expired this Monday , and the protocols that have governed it until now.
The parties will continue the evaluation of this truce in the sixth cycle of peace negotiations taking place in Havana, and when that evaluation is completed “the extension will be signed,” the negotiating table reported in a brief statement without further details.
The expected extension of the ceasefire has been delayed longer than budgeted, amidst conflicting versions.
“There is already an agreement, now the Government needs to issue the decree and they give the order for a ceasefire” for another six months, the high commissioner for Peace, Otty Patiño, who has just been the chief negotiator with the ELN.
His words were interpreted as a preview of the formal announcement of the delegations.
The end of kidnappings by the guerrillas and the thorny debate over their future financing are the issues that have held up an agreement for now.
The parties thus maintain, for the moment, the unprecedented six-month ceasefire that came into force as of August 3, 2023, agreed upon at the closing of the third cycle of negotiations, also in Cuba.
Monitoring and verification mechanisms include the participation of the UN and the Catholic Church.
The delegations have since agreed to create the conditions to extend this truce, which does not include hostilities with third parties.
The Round Table of Dialogues for Peace between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the National Liberation Army - ELN has reached the following agreement on the bilateral, national and temporary ceasefire during the sixth cycle taking place in Havana, Cuba .
Check the… pic.twitter.com/v7eJkDbyzD
— High Commissioner Paz (@ComisionadoPaz) January 29, 2024
The table with the Elenos is the most advanced within the framework of the total peace policy of the Petro Government, which aims to dialogue simultaneously with several armed groups, often also in conflict with each other.
The other formal table is with the dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla grouped in the so-called Central General Staff, with which there is also a ceasefire in force until next July 15.
The ELN committed in December to suspend “withholdings for economic purposes,” as it refers to the extortionate kidnapping of civilians, “within the framework of the extension of the ceasefire scheduled for the end of January [2024].”
This is how the crisis that had been caused at the end of October by the kidnapping, in the middle of the ceasefire, of the father of soccer player Luis Díaz, was averted.
This action shocked the country and put the spotlight on a crime highly repudiated by Colombian society that the ELN frames as part of its economic activities.
The guerrillas freed him after 12 days of captivity.
The Government delegation has been emphatic in demanding the freedom of the rest of the kidnapped people.
The delegations have held cycles of negotiations in Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, while Petro himself nominated Vatican City this month as the venue for the next round of peace talks, after meeting with Pope Francis in the Holy See.
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