The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has advanced in peace dialogues with guerrilla groups, especially with the National Liberation Army (ELN). However, he still faces resistance and distrust from armed groups, according to Luz Angela Rojas, a member of the country’s popular movement group Congress of Peoples.
In conversation with the Brazil in fact regarding the ELN’s actions and peace dialogues with the government, she said that the Colombian State does not comply with the agreements it has made with guerrilla groups since the 1950s and the stance of previous governments generated distrust in the ELN.
“The dialogues with the ELN are historic. The distrust that the guerrillas have is not a matter of preventing dialogue, but is part of the recognition of our country’s history. The elites, in addition to not complying with the agreements, systematically killed militants”, told the Brazil in fact.
Part of this non-compliance occurs because, until then, Colombia had governments occupied by the right in the country. For Rojas, these sectors have always understood peace as the delivery of weapons, something that, for the guerrillas, is an important part of the negotiations so as not to show fragility and vulnerability in the dialogues. Instead of handing over weapons, the goal is to commit to not using them. That’s why the ELN talks about discussion cycles to establish temporary truces.
According to the member of the Peoples’ Congress, the ELN developed an intelligence system that allows these violations by the government to be quickly identified.
“When the ELN says that the government has not complied with the agreements, in addition to a call, it is a demonstration of the intelligence that the ELN has, of infiltration and capillarity in the territory. This entire process of intelligence and counterintelligence that the ELN has was built on account of this disrespect for agreements”, he stated.
The ELN has participated in peace negotiation tables with the Colombian government. The last of them was in Cuba, in February. At the meeting, the two parties extended the ceasefire until August. However, the ELN in March accused the government of having violated this truce, suspended negotiations and said the process was in an “open crisis”. After this episode, the guerrilla group resumed talks and will prepare for the next cycle of debates to be held in April, in Venezuela.
Movements and guerrillas
The Congress of Peoples is an organization that brings together popular groups and movements from different regions to debate and fight for better living conditions for the population. The group is also responsible for mediating debates between guerrillas and the government.
Despite having a strong presence in places where the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) operate, the group has no relationship with armed guerrillas. This is actually a problem that popular movements face in Colombia.
According to Rojas, traditional Colombian media outlets try to associate the guerrillas with social movements and the left in the country and, in this way, have always harmed Colombia’s progressive movements. According to her, although many of the issues raised by the groups are common to the issues addressed by the movements, “they are not the same thing”.
Society participation
Society’s disbelief in a path to peace is one of the central aspects of dialogues between the government and armed groups. For Rojas, the Executive’s solution is to take a stand and make people have the confidence to express themselves and actively participate in these dialogues locally.
One of the assets for this is Gustavo Petro’s position in resolving these conflicts. Permanent dialogue with armed groups is one of the policies implemented by the Colombian since the beginning of his mandate in 2022. The president made the search for peace official by transforming the idea into State policy following the approval of law 418, which establishes the commitment of the Colombian State to maintain contact to negotiate an end to clashes between these groups.
However, there are other internal barriers that make it difficult for your government to act. According to Rojas, one of the main difficulties is that some public posts and bodies are controlled by the right.
“Colombia has some peculiarities. First, it is what we call ‘hard democracy’, a mix between democracy and dictatorship. We have never had a dictatorship as we know it, but our governments are clearly divided between the ruling classes and the elimination of parties and projects from the left. With Petro it is different, but he says he does not have the power, as the bureaucracy is occupied by the right, which makes it difficult for these negotiations to move forward”, he stated.
The ELN was created in 1964 under the inspiration of the Cuban Revolution and Liberation Theology. It has a presence in two hundred municipalities, with around 2,300 guerrillas, with a greater concentration in the departments of Arauca, Cauca, Chocó, Nariño, Catatumbo and Antioquia, according to the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (Pares).
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho