The president of Colombia reported this Saturday that he signed a decree on Friday that seeks to build the path so that the National Liberation Army “stops being an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia.”
“By decree signed yesterday, I have authorized the restoration of the protocols, allowing negotiators again, allowing them to reconnect with their organization, suspending arrest warrants for those negotiators, suspending extradition orders for those negotiators so that they can begin a dialogue with the National Liberation Army, so called, to try to build the road, hopefully quickly and expeditiously, where this organization stops being an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia,” said Gustavo Petro after a Security Council plenary session held in San Pablo, a town Bolívar department, northern Colombia.
Petro discussed with the Security Council the problem of violence and illegal mining in that region. In this framework, he made the announcement about offering guarantees to the ELN leaders, which is consistent with his message that “peace is the priority.”
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President @petrogustavo signed a decree allowing ELN negotiators to reconnect with their organization; suspends arrest and extradition orders to try to build peace talks and “stop being an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia.” pic.twitter.com/zNzR1gh3bb
– Ministry of defense (@minidefensa) August 20, 2022
In his speech, Petro also invited “those who make up the so-called self-defense groups to begin a similar path and, jointly, deliver this region to peace and the life of its own members: if they are minors, to society; if they are of legal age, to peaceful existence in the territory or anywhere in the country.
In addition, he explained that with this signed decree, “a new possibility of a peace process begins in Colombia, which I hope —and we will be vigilant with the Public Force and with the civil authorities—, will specifically bring about a decrease in violence in the south of Bolívar, in our Magdalena Medio, in the lands surrounding the great river of the country (the Magdalena)».
The first attempt at negotiation occurred in 2017, during the government of then President Juan Manuel Santos. These talks were held in Quito, Ecuador, and the initial objective was to reach an agreement similar to the one previously achieved with the FARC, but this did not last.
In 2019, already during the government of former President Iván Duque, the dialogues with the ELN moved to Havana, Cuba, and were officially broken after the attack perpetrated by this guerrilla at the General Santander Cadet School, on January 17 of that year. This attack claimed the lives of 23 people and left almost a hundred wounded.
With information from Week.
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