The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) agreed on February 5 to extend the existing bilateral ceasefire for 180 days and create a multi-donor fund for the peace process. The ELN also agreed to suspend their holding of hostages for economic purposes. The agreement was made on the closing day of the sixth cycle of peace talks between the two sides which began on January 22 in Havana, Cuba.
This will be the second bilateral ceasefire agreement of this length that the government has signed with ELN. The first was reached on Friday, June 9, 2023 also in Havana, Cuba, during the third round of talks and went into effect on August 3, 2023. The latest Bilateral, National and Temporary Ceasefire went into effect at midnight on February 6.
During the six months of ceasefire, the Colombian Armed Forces and the ELN are not permitted to carry out offensive operations against each other. In this round of talks, the two sides also defined a protocol of specific actions during the ceasefire, as well as a protocol for the evaluation, extension or suspension of the bilateral ceasefire. A monitoring and verification mechanism was also created to observe the ceasefire and follow up on the adherence to it.
They also agreed to create and launch an observatory on the forms of paramilitarism.
Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and head of the Multilateral Organization’s Verification Mission, celebrated the extension of the ceasefire with the ELN.
He wrote on social media that the agreement is a “show of the maturity of the process and the commitment of the parties to peacebuilding.”’
In the month of April, the Government and the ELN will resume peace talks in the Seventh Cycle. Although they have not yet publicly defined the meeting location, some sources agree that it could be held in Venezuela.
Key points
Notably, the bilateral ceasefire does not include other groups, such as the paramilitaries of the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) and dissident groups. These groups remain major threats for the rural communities in Colombia especially in the Northeast and Northwest of Antioquia and the South of the department of Bolívar.
On February 4, the governor of Bolívar Yamil Arana, shared a video on social media of a child who begged the AGC (Gulf Clan) paramilitaries to return his mother, who is in the power of that group that kidnapped her in the Lejanias village, in the municipality of Cantagallo in the department of Bolívar.
“Gentlemen, self-defense groups, I make this video so that you respect my mother, you can return her to me alive and you respect her life. I don’t have a father, I don’t have anyone, I don’t want to be an orphan, please, can you return her to me. “They caught her in the Lejanías neighborhood,” said the minor in the video published by Governor Arana.
The ELN has also denounced that paramilitary operations against them in some regions are carried out by the Gulf Clan (AGC) and in others by dissidents, both in conjunction with the Colombian Military Forces.
The Ombudsman indicated that this paramilitary group in 2022 was in 253 municipalities and in 2023 it increased its presence to 392 Colombian municipalities.
Indepaz stated that this is currently the group with the largest number of members, which range between 9,000 and 12,000 paramilitaries.
With reports from Colombia Informa.
