Exclusive-Colombia's ELN rebels willing to resume talks, leader says

Colombian guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) is willing to resume peace negotiations with the current government or with whatever new government is elected next year if commitments previously agreed upon at stymied peace talks are honored, the group's top commander told Reuters.

President Gustavo Petro suspended peace talks with the ELN in January after the group clashed with another rebel faction in the country’s northeast, leaving more than a hundred people dead and around 55,000 displaced.

“The ELN has always maintained its willingness toward peace, as well as to resume talks with the current government, but within a framework of respect, responsibility, and compliance with what was agreed,” said ELN leader Eliecer Herlinto Chamorro, better known by his nom de guerre Antonio Garcia, in response to a Reuters questionnaire.

“It cannot be a clean slate. We understand that what was agreed is not with a government, but with the state, because we know how complex this has been. It is in our interest that what has been advanced can continue,” Garcia said.

It was not possible to establish the date when the rebel leader - on whom Colombia's military has placed a bounty of more than $1 million for information leading to his arrest - answered the questionnaire.

Before the talks were cancelled, Petro’s government and the ELN had reached deals on civil society participation in peace-building, humanitarian efforts and development projects.

Petro, who was elected in 2022 on promises to bring “total peace” to Colombia and end a six-decade armed conflict that killed more than 450,000 people, said in late October it was time to restart contacts with the ELN. The group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has more than 6,200 members, including fighters and collaborators.

He repeated the offer last week in Norte de Santander province, where the group has a significant presence: “To the ELN I say, 'Brothers, sisters, because here we are all brothers, human beings: make peace now.'”

NO AGREEMENT ON DISARMAMENT

Issues including the suspension of hostilities, an end to ELN kidnappings and possible funding of the peace process through a multi-donor fund remained unresolved at the most recent talks.

The ELN, accused of financing itself through kidnapping, drug trafficking and illegal mining, has held peace talks with several governments since the 1990s, but they stalled due to its radical demands, diffuse chain of command and internal disagreements, according to security sources. The rebel group has always said it acts in full unity.

Colombians will elect a new congress and Petro’s successor in the first half of next year. Analysts expect security and peace to loom as decisive issues.

Petro's talks with rebel groups and crime gangs have brought limited advances and in some regions Petro has pledged massive social and military intervention, to limited success.

Last week, the government and the Clan del Golfo crime gang said that combatants from that group will gradually gather in three defined areas from March 1, thanks to a deal at talks in Qatar.

“Regardless of the government that comes, we must continue striving to advance what has been agreed so far," Garcia said. "Everything done at the table has been public; there is nothing hidden, and the more society participates, the better.”