The government delegation for dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN) sent a letter to the Colombian bishops to express their willingness to return to the negotiating table, as requested by the Episcopate last week.
On September 23, the Episcopal Conference of Colombia (CEC) expressed its concern about the suspension of peace talks, announced on Tuesday the 17th by President Gustavo Petro after the guerrilla attack against a military garrison in the department of Arauca.
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In their statement, the bishops encouraged both delegations to unfreeze the dialogue table and respond to the clamor of the communities that suffer from the clashes “and cannot stand any more bloodshed.”
In this sense, the call of the Catholic Church has had the response of the government delegation, which on September 25 sent a letter to the Presidency of the Episcopate.
In their letter, the members of the delegation thank the bishops “for their heartfelt call to continue the peace dialogue and we are committed to it.”
“We also remain committed and hopeful on that path, willing to sit at the table again, to resolve the difficulties through dialogue, recover the ceasefire and the participation of society in peace,” they state in their letter.
The peace talks between the government and the ELN began in November 2022 and were accompanied by the Episcopate, the UN, as well as Spain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. It also had Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and Norway as guarantor countries.
One of its advances had been the bilateral ceasefire that came into effect on August 3, 2023 for 180 days, and which after an extension, expired on August 3, 2024.
However, during the process there were events that affected the dialogue, such as the guerrilla’s announcement, in May 2024, to resume kidnappings.
The dialogue with the ELN was part of the president’s promise to achieve “total peace” in Colombia. However, it is not the first time that a peace process has been closed with this armed group.
In January 2018, President Juan Manuel Santos put an end to negotiations with the ELN, after a series of attacks that it committed after the expiration of a four-month ceasefire.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Prensa I have been sent to cover Pope Francis’ trips to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synodality Synod in the Vatican in 2023.