After 52 years of bloody armed conflict and three years of some secret and some informal negotiations, the Colombian state and the ELN, the country’s last-standing rebel group, have agreed to open formal peace talks.
The negotiations coincide with an ongoing peace process with the FARC, the ELN’s much larger fellow-rebel group.
While formal talks were already announced in mid 2014, just months after initial contact was allegedly made, the formalization of the talks took another two and a half years, mainly because both parties continued to introduce conditions not in the initial agreement to talk peace.
The talks will be held mainly in Quito, but countries like Brazil, Cuba, Chile and Venezuela are also host countries. The talks will be monitored by Norway and Chile, who were also closely involved in the negotiations between the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC.
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The war
The war with Colombia’s last remaining guerrilla group, the ELN, has waged since 1964, but has a history that began in the 19th century.
Violence and civil war have plagued Colombia ever since its recognized independence in 1819.
Not counting the current armed conflict, the country has had eight civil wars since its liberation from Spain.
Political division between liberals and conservatives
The wars were driven by a bitter political conflict between the country’s traditionally secular liberals and the Catholic Church-backed conservatives.
This feud goes all the way back to the founding of the country with the Liberator Simon Bolivar and his second-in-command Francisco de Paula Santander, whose followers respectively founded the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party in what became a two-party political system.
However, rather than pursuing their individual ideological purposes, these parties often were driven by or catered to the interests of wealthy and powerful families.
Colombia’s current president Juan Manuel Santos is, for example, a descendant of independence fighter Antonia Santos and a grand-nephew of President Eduardo Santos.
La Violencia
After World War II, more radical leftist philosophies began to take hold in some parts of the country in response to the oligarchical system of government upheld by the two parties.
The 1948 assassination of populist liberal politician Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, who many believed would win the 1949 elections, led to a “La Violencia,” a decade-long period of extreme partisan violence that killed between 150,000 and 200,000 Colombians.
La Violencia ended when the two parties agreed to alternate control of the national government every four years, forming the “National Front.”
However, more radical elements of the left such as the communists did not accept this deal between the Bogota political elites, and remained in arms after La Violencia in defiance of the national government.
It is from these conditions that the ELN and a number of other guerrilla groups emerged in and around 1964.
The rise of the ELN
The ELN was strongly influenced by the Cuban Revolution, like many other Latin American guerrilla movements. In fact, the original leaders of the ELN were trained in Cuba, which had been taken over by Communist dictator Fidel Castro only a few years earlier.
Numerous Colombians received scholarships to study in Cuba, but when they left during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, 22 stayed behind to participate in military training to defend against a possible invasion.
Of these, Victor Medina Moron, Fabio Vasquez Castano, Heriberto Espitia, Ricardo Lara Parada, Luis Rovira, Mario Hernandez and Jose Merchan would go on to found the ELN.
The ELN quietly began preparing their military activity in the central Colombian Santander province on July 4, 1964.
Six months later, on January 7, 1965, they carried out their first attack on the village of Simacota, Santander.
After the assault, the guerrillas presented a manifesto, explaining their revolutionary purpose and inviting locals to join their group.
Among those who agreed were several priests associated with the Marxist-like Liberation Theology that seeks to put the Catholic Church at the service of the poor and disadvantaged.
The most famous of these priests was the iconic father Camilo Torres.
Gabino enters war at 14
Among those who joined the emerging group in 1964 was the then-14-year-old Nicolas Rodriguez, know better known as “Gabino,” the highest ranking member of the ELN.
In 1966, Torres was killed in his first ever combat with the Colombian military and has since become an iconic martyr for the guerrillas.
In 1969, three Spanish priests, inspired by the death of Torres, joined the ELN.
Among them was Manuel Perez Martinez, nom de guerre Cura Perezor or Poliarco, who became a top commander of the organization until he died of hepatitis B in 1998.
On February 5, 1970 the ELN conducted their first kidnapping, which would be their primary source of funding until the group got involved in drug trafficking.
Near-death experience
In 1973, the ELN was decimated in a military offensive called operation Anori.
Over 30,000 army, police, and national guard formed a task force to hunt down the guerrillas, killing 135 of their estimated 200 members.
The casualties included the brothers of leader Fabio Velasquez, Marco and Antonio.
The survivors of the military offensive came together in October 1973 during the guerrilla “Assembly of Anacoreto.”
At the assembly, those held responsible for the military defeat were executed and exiled leader Fabio Vasquez outlined a new strategy for the group from Cuba.
However, the execution of members caused major unrest among the the guerrillas and Velasquez was banished from the group on claims he was more interested in promoting the interests of Cuba than those of the ELN.
Gabino then took over Velasquez’ leadership of the group.
The remaining division within the group kept it from acting coherently and forming a serious threat to the government, which took advantage seeking the first-ever peace talks, but without success.
History of peace talks with Colombia’s ELN guerrillas
The ELN’s violent resurrection
The group remained in relative disarray until the 1980s when a newly arisen drug trafficking industry provided the ELN with considerable more funding, mainly by demanding protection money from the narcos.
Additionally, during the in the middle of the decade, oil was discovered in Arauca, one of the ELN’s strongholds, and the group also began extorting local and international oil companies.
Thanks to the growing revenue from kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking, the group reached its peak around 2001 with approximately 4,130 fighters and thousands more supporters across the country, both in the countryside and the cities.
ELN membership (1964 – 2021)
However, the entry of the paramilitaries escalated the conflict and, while rapidly expanding its military forces, the ELN increasingly began using terrorist activities and kidnapping.
Throughout the 1990s, the ELN was regularly bombing major oil pipelines, even those from which it still drew revenue.
On 18 October 1998, the Cimarrones Front bombed the Central Pipeline of Colombia, which was next to the town of Manchuca.
The fire spread to the town, destroying 46 buildings and killing 54 people, most of whom were minors.
In April 1999, the ELN hijacked an Avianca flight, taking 43 people captive.
The next month, ELN guerrillas dressed as policemen kidnapped 186 people from a church in Cali, the largest single kidnapping in Colombian history.
The downfall
Since the late 1990s and in spite of growing their military apparatus, the ELN suffered major territorial losses to the newly found anti-guerrilla paramilitary groups, internal feuds and occasional clashes with the much bigger FARC guerrilla group.
Amid the paramilitary offensive, the ELN was able to maintain its stronghold the northeastern in Arauca and Norte de Santander province, and in Nariño and Choco along the Pacific coast.
The group lost, however, its strategically important stronghold in the northern Magdalena Medio region that connected its military units from the west and the east of the country.
ELN’s areas of influence
The pressure on the group increased even more in 1999, when the United States agreed to finance “Plan Colombia,” a counter-narcotics offensive that effectively became a counter-insurgency offensive.
While fighting the paramilitary AUC and the US-backed Colombian military, the ELN lost more than half of its fighters between 2002 and 2008.
Making friends with the FARC
As both the ELN and the FARC were facing increased military pressure, they decided to put aside their differences which had previously led to violent clashes between the two Marxist groups.
The alliance probably allowed the groups to prevent their own extinction and instead force a stalemate.
Neither guerrilla group had the power to overthrow the government and the rebels’ return to traditional guerrilla warfare ended the state’s territorial advances made in the 1990s and the first decade of this century.
Moreover, a series of major scandals over mass human rights violations by the military and a global economic crisis forced the US to diminish military aid.
In 2011, both the ELN and the government announced their interest to hold peace talks for the eighth time since the group’s formation 52 years earlier.
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General agreement and agenda
The general agreement formally outlines both parties’ commitment to the talks and the logistics facilitating them.
Unlike with the FARC, with whom the agenda and the ultimate agreement mainly dealt with the causes of aggravators of much of Colombia’s political violence of the past decade, the ELN’s agenda is more open.
In the case of the FARC, the two warring parties made peace. In the case of the ELN, the guerrillas seek a more public and democratic process, actively involving the civilian population in finding solutions to the violence they were partly causing.
Agreement between the ELN and the Santos administration
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Timeline
2011 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017
Unknown date – Government and ELN secretly and mutually express interest in peace talks.
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Timeline
2011 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017
January – The ELN and the government make first contact with the intention of beginning peace talks
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Timeline
2011 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017
January 7 – ELN releases a series of statements reflecting conclusions from a conference of the guerrilla group’s top leadership. While the guerrillas explicitly state their willingness to abandon arms at some point, their statements do not indicate that formal talks with the Colombian government are any closer to beginning.
January 31 – Santos denies rumors of an imminent announcement of the launch of ELN peace talks he announced half a year earlier.
February 3 – In a message to Colombia’s security forces, ELN leader “Gabino,” proposes creating zones in which neither side carries out military operations. The government rejects the idea.
March 8 – According to the ELN, secret talks with the government that were held the days before end.
March 14 – “Advances have been made in the preparation of an Agenda,” the ELN tweets. “It hasn’t been concluded, but only one point remains and work continues to define it with clarity.”
April 24 – “Gabino” says the “peace train” could start soon, but warns any deal to end half a century of war will have to rule out jail time for the rebels.
May 13 – Santos announces that top bosses from the FARC and the ELN have met in Cuba at the end of April to advance an eventual peace agreement.
July 24 – The ELN drops its demand for a bilateral ceasefire ahead of peace talks.
September 4 – “Gabino” urges Colombia to mend strained diplomatic ties with neighbor Venezuela, who they consider “key” in attempts to formalize ongoing peace talks.
December 28 – Guerrilla chief “Gabino” announces a deal to begin peace talks between Colombia’s government and ELN rebels is ready with talks beginning in 2016, a year and a half after the initial announcement.
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Timeline
2011 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017
February 9 – Colombian government announce that the ELN must release a civilian and a soldier held hostage before the peace process can begin
March 30 – ELN and the Colombian government announce an agenda for negotiations from Venezuela. ELN hold a press conference in Venezuela
June 28 – The ELN asked the Colombian government for a permanent, bilateral ceasefire, but fails to offer concessions in return
October 10 – ELN and the Colombian government announce that formal peace talks to be inaugurated on 27th October. The guerrillas vow to release hostages before talks
October 23 – Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos appoints his former agriculture minister Juan Camilo Restrepo as the government’s chief negotiator in peace talks with the ELN
October 24 – Week ahead of ELN peace talks marred by violence and displacement.
October 27 – The Colombian government suspends dialogue with the ELN because of their failure to release a hostage, former congressman Odin Sanchez.
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Timeline
2011 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017
January 24 – The ELN, days after Santos, invited Uribe to take part in the peace talks. The former president refused.
January 31 – ELN negotiator Pablo Beltran tells press his organization will not submit to the transitional justice system agreed with FARC rebels.
February 1 – The ELN said it would continue its kidnapping practices unless agreement in the talks is reached about the subject.
February 2 – ELN releases former governor Odin Sanchez after 10 months of captivity after an agreement the government would release two guerrillas.
February 3 – The Colombian government releases guerrilla prisoners, which was the ELN’s last remaining demands for talks to begin.
February 7 – ELN frees Fredy Moreno, a soldier who had been held hostage for two weeks in the Arauca province as a gesture of good will ahead of the inauguration of the talks.
February 7 – Delegations in Quito, Ecuador formally inaugurate the peace talks
February 16 – Following a week of talks in Ecuador, the government’s lead delegate Juan Camilo Restrepo announces a “first accord” between the two sides seeking progression towards a cease of fire. The accord covers agreements on the role of civil leaders in the peace process and humanitarian measures to de-escalate the conflict.
February 22 – Colombia’s government and the ELN agree to ask leading European nations to help create an international fund to finance ELN participation in ongoing peace negotiations.
February 23 – Ecuador’s opposition presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso ensures that he will continue support for peace talks in the event he is elected president.
February 27 – Colombia’s government peace negotiators slam the ELN rebels for jeopardizing the peace process after they claim responsibility for a bombing outside a bull ring in the capital, Bogota.
March 29 – Colombia government chief negotiator Juan Camilo Restrepo urges ELN to end violence as it appears to be expanding its territory, reiterating that that state negotiators will not leave the negotiating table.
March 30 – Both sides announce that they are close to an agreement on landmine removal.
April 6 – In their first joint press conference, Colombia’s government and the ELN rebels announce an agreement on landmine removal. Additionally, government chief negotiator Juan Camilo Restrepo and ELN chief negotiator “Pablo Beltran” say that during the second round of talks, due to begin on May 3, the warring parties will seek an effective de-escalation of violence.
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Government delegation
Juan Camilo Restrepo (Chief negotiator)
Juan Sebastian Betancur
Luz Helena Sarmiento
Juan Mayr
Eduardo Herrera
Alberto Fergusson
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ELN delegation
Pablo Beltran (Chief negotiator)
Pablo Beltran, nom de guerre of Israel Ramirez, studied chemical engineering in the 1970s before joining ELN. He is currently considered the third most powerful of ELN’s commanders and has taken part in peace negotiations before with former Presidents Andres Pastrana and Alvaro Uribe.
Antonio Garcia (Spokesperson)
Antonio Garcia, whose real name is Eliecer Herlinto Chamorro is the ELN’s second-in-command after “Gabino.” He was previously a part of the ELN delegation to peace talks with former President Andres Pastrana. During these talks, Garcia will be the delegation’s spokesperson.
Aureliano Carbonel
Aureliano Carbonel is a commander of the ELN’s northern front that is active in the Magdalena River valley and the north of the Antioquia province. Though little is known about him, his name frequently appears in ELN publications.
Consuelo Tapias
Consuelo Tapias is another negotiator of whom little is known. She was not on the list of ELN negotiators presented in Caracas on March 30, but will be working with the delegation in Quito.
Gustavo Martinez
Gustavo Martinez’s past is largely a mystery, but he is a frequent writer in the ELN’s magazine Voces.
Bernardo Tellez
Bernardo Tellez is a long time militant who has fought for the guerrillas in the Magdalena Medio region, one of the ELN’s long-time strongholds.
Supplementary ELN negotiators
- Vivian Henao
- Isabel Torres
- Silvana Guerrero
- Maria Helena Buitrago
- Miriam Baron
- Gustavo Martinez
- Tomas García
- Carlos Reyes
- Eduardo Perez
- Alirio Sepulveda
- Alejandro Montoya
- Camilo Hernandez
- Oscar Serrano
- Manuel Cardenas
- Marcos Suarez
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Resources
Colombia Reports news
External resources
- Colombia Peace (WOLA)
- Guide: Colombia’s Peace Talks (AS/COA)
- ELN peace talks: What are the challenges? (BBC)
- Colombian conflict (1964–present) (Wikipedia)
Warring parties
Nations supporting the process
- Ecuador (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- Norway ( Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- Cuba (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- Chile (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- Brazil (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- Venezuela (Ministry of Foreign Affairs | in Spanish)