Opportunities for peace between the Colombian government and the ELN

April 02 / 2020

On 29 March 2020, Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace, Miguel Ceballos, invested Carlos Velandia and Francisco Galán -former commanders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) insurgency- as Peace Facilitators (Gestores de Paz) This was a reversal of an earlier decision taken by the Duque administration in January 2019, which withdrew this role from Velandia and Galán, despite the fact that they had been carrying it out and supporting exploratory peace efforts between the government and the ELN since July 2016. The government issued arrest warrants for both of them, even though they had legally demobilised from the ELN guerrilla many years before. As a result, Galán was imprisoned and Velandia went into hiding.

This is a positive unilateral gesture by President Duque, allowing both Galán and Velandia to put their energies and commitment to peace towards contributing to a new cycle of negotiations between the ELN and the government, thus alleviating the humanitarian situation in Catatumbo, Cauca, Chocó, and Nariño, four regions heavily affected by the recent escalation of the conflict.   

The ELN has also taken a positive step in a similar direction. On 30 March 2020, they declared a unilateral ceasefire between the 1 and 30 April. This responded to the request by Colombian civil society and the international community, notably Colombia’s Truth Commission Chair Francisco de Roux and UN General Secretary António Guterres, for armed actors to halt military actions and allow people worldwide to unite in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The ELN also stated its willingness to meet with government officials, to discuss extending this ceasefire.

Embrace Dialogue welcomes these two unilateral gestures. We have worked with Carlos Velandia in the past, and the example he sets inspires us and reinforces our desire to urge the parties to return to the negotiation table. We participated in the recent National Dialogue organised by President Duque (between November 2019 to February 2020), and recognise an effort to listen to proposals for building sustainable peace. We hope that in the face of the adversity brought by coronavirus, Colombia can find a way to pave the road to a sustainable peace.