It should be taken as a gesture allowing progress in the field of peace negotiations: the Colombian government granted the National Liberation Army (ELN) the status of "rebel armed political organization", a condition stated as indispensable by the guerrillas in order to distinguish them from other armed groups, such as drug traffickers, with whom President Gustavo Petro is also trying to achieve "total peace".
The ELN, which had threatened to end all negotiations if it was not granted this status, praised on Twitter an "agreement on the issues without which it is impossible to develop clearly and firmly this peace process: the qualification of the ELN as a rebel armed political organization".
Delegates also agreed to set up a communication channel operating during the suspension of the talks, the last round of which began on February 13 in Mexico City with Chile, Venezuela, Norway, Mexico and Brazil as guarantors, as well that a bilateral truce is on the agenda.
Ceasefire denied
The National Liberation Army (Guevarist-inspired), the last constituted guerrilla still active in the country, resumed discussions with the government in November 2022, after a four-year hiatus.
President Petro, himself a former guerrilla in the M-19 movement, declared a ceasefire on January 1 with five armed groups, including the ELN, which shortly afterwards denied the presidential announcement. At the end of January, however, the Colombian army had killed nine suspected guerrilla members.
Petro, who took office in August as the first left-wing president in Colombia's history, aims to achieve "total peace" with the multitude of armed groups operating in the country, very often implicated in the drug trafficking.
