The Colombian prosecutor’s office announced that it will lift the arrest warrant against alias Antonio García, commander of the ELN guerrilla, who has been involved in peace negotiations with the government since the end of last year. The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa, mentioned that he received a new resolution signed by the President of the Republic requesting the suspension of Antonio Garcia’s arrest warrant due to the existence of two ongoing peace processes. This decision has immediate effect and was taken after considering the corresponding legal framework.
Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, has been negotiating with the ELN since November 2022. In addition, he has been conducting rapprochements with rebels who broke away from the historic peace agreement with the FARC in 2017. However, so far, there have been no significant advances to reduce the armed conflict in the country.
The attorney general stressed that peace is not incompatible with security and acknowledged the criticisms that have arisen in relation to the peace processes. Despite the challenges and controversies, negotiations with the ELN continued even after an armed attack by the insurgents in March that resulted in the deaths of ten military personnel near the Venezuelan border. The parties will continue to sit at the dialogue table, and the third cycle of talks will close in Cuba.
Antonio Garcia is one of the prominent members of the ELN’s Central Command (COCE), the guerrillas’ decision-making body. He faces accusations of forced recruitment of minors and involvement in a car bomb attack on a police school that killed 22 people, including the assailant. This attack led to the collapse of negotiations with former conservative President Iván Duque. Although, in August last year, arrest warrants were lifted against 16 guerrilla leaders to allow them to participate in the new peace talks, Garcia was not on that list.
The ELN, inspired by Guevarist ideology, refused to be part of a bilateral truce declared by President Gustavo Petro on December 31. However, government emissaries in Cuba, one of the negotiating venues, have insisted on the need to agree on a ceasefire. At a recent meeting, Petro shared a photo on Twitter showing a slide about a “bilateral ceasefire agreement” to begin on Thursday, although the image was deleted shortly after from his account.
The ELN has held frustrated talks with five previous governments. According to the Defense Ministry, the guerrillas numbered at least 5,850 fighters in 2022.