Pablo Beltrán (right) speaks during the conclusion of the third round of peace negotiations between the government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in El Laguito in Havana. YAMIL LAGE (AFP)
The ceasefire signed this Friday by the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) does not provide for the suspension of the kidnappings and extortions carried out by the guerrillas, as the armed group’s chief negotiator Pablo Beltrán has made clear. “ELN financial operations started to be discussed here, but this discussion did not end. Discussions continue, they are not included in these protocols,” commented the former commander-in-chief of the organization. The operations include what the guerrillas call “withholdings” in relation to kidnappings, and “taxes” in relation to the extortion of residents of the areas where they are present.
“What is ELN finance to you?” Beltrán rhetorically responded to a journalist who asked him about the term. He later exemplified activities such as “taxes” and reported that these would be retained “for the time being”. The intention, according to the chief negotiator, is that these operations would be suspended in another agreement in the future. In the meantime, he hopes measures like “withholding” can be avoided, even if they’re not part of the mindset: “If they’re not necessary, they won’t be done.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed the agreement in Havana this Friday as part of the third round of negotiations. He did so with ELN Commander-in-Chief Antonio García and under the vigilant supervision of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. “We came for Colombia and that’s why we were chosen to give these peace opportunities,” Petro celebrated at the ceremony. It was a photo that will go down in history as the first major achievement of total peace, the left-wing president’s banner policy aimed at pacifying the country. The ELN is not a small group: it is the oldest guerrilla group in Latin America with a strong symbolic meaning and operates in 22 of Colombia’s 32 departments, according to the Office of the Ombudsman.
The agreement provides for a gradual implementation of the ceasefire. The recruitment phase is immediate, while the end of offensive operations begins on July 6th and reaches its full 180-day validity on August 3rd. The monitoring and verification mechanisms – with the support of the United Nations, the Catholic Church and the guarantee countries – will be installed in the coming days and weeks, so that the ceasefire should apply to all Colombian territory until the end of 2023. This is the case, with explicit support from both parties, unlike the incident earlier in the year when the ELN denied the bilateral ceasefire announced by the President in December.
The main expectation is that the ceasefire will guarantee an end to confrontations between the state and the ELN. This guerrilla is still active and regularly attacks: in March, nine soldiers were killed and eight wounded in an attack on an army base. One challenge is that the decisions of the negotiators must be followed on all fronts, including those that operate with a degree of independence. “We are one voice and represent the armed uprising of the Colombian people,” said Antonio García, Commander-in-Chief since 2021, this Friday. Another reason is that the reduction in fighting that a ceasefire brings also leads to less violence against the Colombian people, a civil society that finds itself in the midst of conflicts between armed groups, such as that of the ELN against the Clan del Golfo in Chocó (Colombian Pacific) or against dissidents of the defunct FARC in Arauca (border with Venezuela).
For his part, Senator Iván Cépeda, highlighted on Twitter that the agreement ensures the participation of civil society in the peace process. “We established the National Participation Committee; an inclusive mechanism of 30 sectors and 80 representatives to democratically shape how community participation progresses across the country,” said the congressman. Likewise, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace has indicated that in line with historic calls for social justice, the agreement should focus on “creating conditions for civilian populations to exercise their rights and freedoms.”
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