The government of Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and ELN guerrillas will resume efforts to negotiate peace that started in 1975 already.
The current peace talks were formally kicked off by former President Juan Manuel Santos in 2017 after three years of secret negotiations with the rebels.
The ELN has been in peace talks with multiple administrations since 1975, when the guerrilla group’s insurgency was a little more than a decade old.
A 200-year history lesson on the ELN’s war with Colombia’s state
Following the army’s Operation Anori, which all but dismantled the guerrillas’ leadership in 1973, the ELN reached out to President Alfonso Lopez to negotiate an end to the guerrillas’ insurgency.
As part of the efforts to make peace, the government vowed to cease military operations in the area around Barrancabermeja in order to facilitate the demobilization of some 200 guerrillas.
This demobilization never took place as ELN accused Armed Forces commander Alvaro Valencia of ordering his troops to maintain their attacks on the guerrillas in the region.
In response, the rebels rebuilt their organization and expanded their activity throughout Colombia until 1990 when President Cesar Gaviria convinced the ELN to join a peace process other guerrilla groups.
This process allowed the first negotiations between the government and the so-called “National Guerrilla Coordination,” a coalition of insurgent groups that included the ELN as well as the now-defunct guerrilla groups EPL and FARC.
These peace talks began in 1992 in the Mexican city of Tlaxcala, but were suspended in 1993 after the death of former Defense Minister Angelino Duran, who had been kidnapped by the ELN.
President Ernesto Samper and jailed guerrilla commanders renewed efforts to negotiate in peace in 1994, which resulted in formal talks in the German city of Mainz in 1996.
After two years of negotiations, the guerrillas and the government representatives traveled to the Spanish capital of Madrid where they preliminarily signed a “humanitarian agreement.”
This agreement fell apart in 1996, however, after it was leaked to the press. Furthermore, the government entered in crisis over the Cali Cartel’s bankrolling of Samper’s campaign and the guerrillas entered in crisis because of the death of one of its most important leaders, “Cura Perez.”
The possibility that Mainz talks could produce a peace deal evaporated in 1998 after an ELN attack on an oil pipeline killed at least 70 innocent civilians in the Antioquia province.
Notwithstanding, President Andres Pastrana, who had taken office a few months before the so-called “Machuca Massacre,” decided to resume talks with both the ELN and the FARC.
Pastrana demilitarized the south of the Bolivar province to facilitate talks with the ELN and demilitarized parts of southern Colombia for talks with the FARC.
However, these parallel peace talks coincided with an escalation of guerrilla and paramilitary violence, which led to their demise in 2002.
President Alvaro Uribe, who took office a few months after Pastrana’s attempts to make peace failed, resumed talks to jailed former ELN commanders.
The mediation of these former commanders and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez convinced the ELN to agree to a new round of preliminary talks in Cuba and Venezuela between 2005 and 2007.
The ELN’s refusal to agree on a ceasefire, Uribe’s failed efforts to demobilize paramilitary organization AUC and growing tensions with Venezuela ultimately led to the end of these talks.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who succeeded Uribe in 2010, immediately sought to resume talks with both the ELN and the FARC.
This effort ultimately led to formal peace talks with the ELN in 2017, and the FARC’s demobilization and disarmament in the same year.
Colombia’s 2017 peace talks with ELN | Fact sheet
Santos’ successor, Ivan Duque, refused to continue the talks and all but ended the implementation of the peace deal agreed with the FARC in 2016.
Duque failed to formally end the peace talks, however, allowing Petro to resume the talks as initially agreed by Santos and the ELN in 2017.