Colombia’s government and ELN guerrillas formally resumed peace talks in Venezuela on Monday.
The two negotiating teams will try to negotiate an end to the ELN’s almost 60-year-long insurgency.
In a joint statement, the ELN and the government of President Gustavo Petro vowed to “construct peace based on democracy with justice and with tangible, urgent and necessary changes… giving the greatest possible and effective participation of society, prioritizing historically marginalized sectors.”
Social organizations will begin taking part in the peace talks in order to help draft a possible peace deal in December, said the government and ELN representatives.
The participation of social organizations in the peace talks has been a guerrilla demand since 2017, when formal talks between the ELN and former President Juan Manuel Santos began.
Colombia’s decades-long efforts to make peace with ELN
ELN negotiator “Pablo Beltran” said that the guerrillas don’t aspire political participation, for example through negotiated seats in Congress.
The guerrillas do want the peace talks to result in legislation and possible constitutional amendments to prevent future governments rolling back parts of a possible peace deal.
This demand gained relevance after a 2016 peace deal with the FARC, whose implementation was all but put on hold by former President Ivan Duque, who had been an outspoken opponent of making political concessions to the guerrillas.
A 200-year history lesson on the ELN’s war with Colombia’s state
The progressive Petro administration has been an outspoken supporter of the peace deal with the FARC and has consistently said that it would seek peace with the ELN.
If successful, the negotiators would end an armed conflict that began in 1964 already and effectively subjected significant parts of Colombia’s rural population to guerrilla rule.