COLOMBIA: EJERCITO DE LIBERACION NACIONAL AGREES TO PROVISIONAL CEASE-FIRE WITH GOVERNMENT.
The government of Colombia has negotiated an "experimental" cease-fire with the country's second-largest rebel guerrilla group, the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). The cease-fire is part of a "base agreement" that the ELN and the Colombian government reached after five rounds of peace talks, with both sides seeking to expand their agreements in the future.
"Experimental and transitory" cease-fire
The two sides announced the cease-fire on April 18, with the head of Colombia's Peace Commission, Luis Carlos Restrepo, saying, "The president [Alvaro Uribe] has asked me to say to the ELN that we accept its proposal that the cease-fire be experimental and transitory." The ELN announced the day before that it was ready to begin discussions to set up the cease-fire "immediately."
Negotiations have been underway for a long time (see NotiSur, 2004-06-25, 2005-06-17 and 2006-10-27), with the city of Havana, Cuba, playing host to several rounds of talks since 2005. Prior talks had not ended in any agreements. The sixth round of talks began on April 17, although it had been delayed as the ELN's delegation chief Pablo Beltran had difficulties traveling from Venezuela to Cuba for several days. He arrived with other delegation members Francisco Galan and Juan Carlos Cuellar.
Beltran said that the rebel group was willing to lay down arms, "to create an atmosphere of peace and participation. We are going to experiment [to see] if a temporary cease-fire works. And if that is accomplished, the cease-fire may be prolonged, but if it does not work, it will not be prolonged."
Beltran added, "We are not talking about the ELN disappearing, but rather an experiment." He put aside the idea that the armed group would be concentrated in a certain area as has been done with disarmed paramilitary organizations (see NotiSur, 2005-07-22). The ELN says gathering its forces in a specific area would be "suicide."
Beltran countered calls for concentration by saying that the ELN was not demanding that "the [Colombian] Army return to their forts."
Beltran said it would be necessary to arrange for verification of the cease-fire with the military in areas where the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and paramilitary groups are in active combat with the government and each other. Restrepo said on April 19 that the agreement depended on each side "demonstrating the will to design national and international verification mechanisms" for the cease-fire.
The FARC...
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