(Mexico City) The Colombian government has granted the ELN the status of “rebellious armed political organization”, a gesture hailed on Saturday by this guerrilla as essential to the continuation of the peace process initiated by leftist President Gustavo Petro.
The ELN had threatened to put an end to all negotiations if it was not granted this status, intended to distinguish it from other armed groups, such as drug traffickers, with whom Mr. Petro is also trying to conclude a “total peace “.
The guerrillas hailed on Twitter an “agreement on the issues without which it is impossible to develop this peace process clearly and firmly: the legal qualification of the ELN as a rebel armed political organization”.
Delegates also agreed to set up a communication channel operating during the suspension of the talks, the last round of which began on February 13 in Mexico City with Chile, Venezuela, Norway, Mexico and Brazil as guarantors, as well that a bilateral truce is on the agenda.
The National Liberation Army (Guevarist-inspired), the last constituted guerrilla still active in the country, resumed discussions with the government in November 2022, after a four-year hiatus.
President Petro, himself a former guerrilla of the M-19 movement, had decreed the 1er January a ceasefire with five armed groups, including the ELN, which shortly afterwards denied the presidential announcement.
At the end of January, however, the Colombian army had killed nine suspected guerrilla members.
Mr. Petro, who took office in August as the first left-wing president in Colombia’s history, aims to achieve “total peace” with the multitude of armed groups operating in the country, very often involved in the drug trafficking.