The Government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro recognized the National Liberation Army (ELN) as a “rebel armed political organization”, this to advance the so-called “Total Peace” that the leftist promised in his electoral campaign and that is taking place in dialogues with that insurgency that began in Venezuela and continues now in Mexico.
After the announced restart of talks, taking place in Caracas, between the government of Petro, and the ELN, which were interrupted for almost four years during the tenure of the far-right ex-president, Iván Duque, both parties finally met at the meeting. Waraira Repano, and presented a declaration that affirms that peace is the dream of those gathered there and changes their paths.
This Saturday, through a statement issued by the dialogue table in Mexico and released by Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda, it was announced that “the delegations agreed on issues without which it is impossible to clearly and firmly develop this peace process.” .
“The legal legal characterization of the ELN as a rebel armed political organization with which the national government is conducting peace talks”, is the most outstanding of the agreements reached in this new stage of the negotiations on Aztec soil.
In this way, the ELN ceased to be, for the purposes of the “Total Peace” plan, an “organized armed group” which is the characterization applied by the Colombian Executive to other irregular groups, including drug cartels to which the Government of Petro offers a process of submission to justice to receive procedural benefits.
It is worth noting that at the beginning of the month, from the ELN, they warned the Petro government that the negotiations would continue in the deadlock in which the far-right Duque left them if they continued to treat the insurgency as a criminal group.
Secondly, the disclosed agreement refers to “the creation of a contact and communication point for the ELN delegation that will work between the dialogue cycles,” that is, while the dialogues are paused between one cycle of conversations and another.
In addition, they set “the terms of reference by which the Group of Accompaniment, Support and Cooperation Countries (Gpaac) will be governed for this peace process” and both parties decided “to adopt the report of the Humanitarian Commission of the Table that toured the area of the lower Calima and middle San Juan, and assume the responsibilities that correspond to each of the parties of the Table to guarantee the continuity of this humanitarian purpose” and reached “an agreement on pedagogy and communications towards a culture of peace”.
It was learned that they also dealt with complaints, presented by both delegations, about violations of Human Rights and infractions of International Law
Humanitarian events that occurred in the national territory.
Colombian Minister of Justice traveled to Mexico
The presence at the table in Mexico of the Colombian Minister of Justice, Néstor Iván Osuna, was reported, noting that he is the “first senior official of the Colombian State” to intervene in the process and explained “in plenary session the bill for the humanization of prison and prison policy.
Osuna reiterated the continuity of his management related to the humanitarian relief agreed for the political prisoners of the ELN, indicates the released text.
Definition of the Dialogue Agenda
The communiqué states that “the delegations are working on the definition of the Dialogue Agenda: an agreement that makes it possible to begin to discuss issues such as the participation of society in this peace process and bilateral ceasefire.”
The document assures that the delegations “have advanced in the definition of a shared vision of the peace process and a methodology to develop the Agenda” and that they have held numerous bilateral meetings with the guarantor countries, the members of the Gpaac and the permanent accompaniers.
