Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro plans to travel to Havana on Thursday to sign an agreement with the ELN aimed at moving towards peace without setbacks, including the possibility of a ceasefire. Petro will be present at the closing of the third round of negotiations between the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which began on May 2 in Havana.
During a speech on Wednesday in downtown Bogota, Petro announced that he would travel to Cuba to sign a document that could mark the beginning of an era of peace in the country without turning back. For his part, Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez mentioned to Colombian media that the terms of a ceasefire have been discussed and they hope to be able to sign it. He added that the army has made some observations that they hope have been accepted.
At the end of 2022, Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president and a former guerrilla, pushed for this peace process, which began in November in Venezuela and continued in March in Mexico. On Monday, Petro posted on Twitter a photo of a meeting with the military leadership and ELN negotiators, showing a slide mentioning a “bilateral ceasefire agreement” as of Thursday, but the image was removed shortly after from his account after being noticed by several users.
After the meeting, the government’s chief negotiator, Otty Patiño, mentioned to the media that they are considering a six-month cessation of hostilities, without specifying when the truce would begin. Progress in these negotiations had stalled since January, when the guerrillas rejected the six-month bilateral ceasefire announced by the president on New Year’s Eve. Since then, armed clashes between the two sides have not ceased, including an attack in late March that left ten military personnel dead near the Venezuelan border and jeopardized the negotiation process.
Petro’s visit to Havana comes three days after Colombia’s prosecutor’s office announced the suspension of the arrest warrant against Antonio Garcia, the ELN’s top leader. Negotiations with this guerrilla group had begun in 2018 in Havana during the government of Juan Manuel Santos but were suspended by his successor, Iván Duque, following a car bomb attack on a police school that left 22 dead.
Colombia has attempted numerous peace negotiations with armed groups over the course of half a century of conflict, many of which have failed. The historic agreement negotiated in Havana in 2016 succeeded in disarming the powerful FARC guerrillas and transforming them into a political party. Now, with Petro in power, it is hoped that success in peace negotiations with the ELN will contribute to Cuba’s removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, something Petro has rejected and which the government hopes to achieve.