ELN guerrilla group denies peace agreement with Colombian government

Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN, in Spanish) denied yesterday that it had reached a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the country’s government, shortly after President Gustavo Petro’s administration published a decree which suggested this was the case.

“ELN delegates have not discussed any bilateral ceasefire proposal with the government, therefore, there is no agreement on the matter,” the armed left-wing organization said in a statement. “A unilateral government decree cannot be accepted as an agreement.”

Government negotiator Otty Patiño, a former M-19 guerrilla member himself, just like President Petro, responded by saying there was a misunderstanding. “This proposal will be discussed in the next cycle of talks in Mexico. It is not an agreement, just a government proposal for the five organizations that are included in it,” Mr. Patiño said in a radio interview. 

Earlier this week, the government had stated that the ELN plus four other armed groups (Segunda Marquetalia, Estado Mayor Central, AGC, and Autodefensas de la Sierra Nevada) had joined the agreement. None of the four other organizations have issued a statement so far.

Colombia’s first left-wing president, Mr. Petro is betting on a final peace deal with insurgent groups, extending the agreement that his right-wing predecessors signed with Colombia’s main armed guerrilla, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, in Spanish).

Colombia has suffered from armed conflicts since the assassination of presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948, which sparked a proto-civil war known as La Violencia (“the violence”), in which tens of thousands died. The billionaire drug trade in the country then complicated the situation, fueling violence even further.

Mr. Petro already played a significant role in the 1989 peace deal between M-19 and the state, but guerrilla groups are skeptical of laying down arms given Colombia’s history of state and paramilitary violence even after formally agreeing to peace.

Negotiations between the two sides are expected to continue later this month.

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