The World Briefly

February 23, 2024

Silent Treatment

Colombia

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Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group suspended peace talks with the government this week, creating another roadblock for President Gustavo Petro’s efforts to end the South American country’s decade-long armed conflict, Agence France-Presse reported.

On Tuesday, the National Liberation Army (ELN) accused the central government of violating ground rules set when negotiations started in 2022. It also alleged that a local government in the southern Nariño department had begun separate talks with ELN fighters, while negotiations were meant to be held at a centralized level.

The armed Marxist group announced it had “frozen” the peace process until further notice.

The Colombian government criticized the ELN’s move Wednesday, saying it undermined broader confidence in the rebels’ “will for peace.”

Separately, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez warned that the government could restart aerial bombings against illegal armed groups that had been suspended shortly after Petro was elected in 2022, Reuters noted.

Peace talks between Bogota and the ELN started in November after they were initially suspended by Petro’s right-wing predecessor, Iván Duque, in 2019 following a car bomb attack.

Since his election in 2022, Petro – Colombia’s first leftist president – has strived to bring “total peace” with the country’s insurgent groups.

The ELN, formed in 1968 and boasting around 5,800 fighters, has been accused by human rights groups of taking advantage of various ceasefires to expand its influence and territory.

The armed group is linked to drug trafficking and mainly operations on Colombia’s Pacific coast and along the border with Venezuela in the northeast.

Negotiations have also been complicated by the fact that the group has individual units that have a degree of autonomy: In October, an ELN faction kidnapped the father of Colombian footballer Luis Díaz, releasing him 12 days later.

In 2016, the much larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) laid down arms following a historic peace agreement, though some renegade fighters rejected the deal and remain active under a new name.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, hundreds of people protested across Colombia to demand justice for hundreds of social leaders, human rights activists and signatories of the 2016 accord who have been killed in recent years, La Prensa Latina wrote.

According to Colombia’s Ombudsman Office, more than 180 of these individuals were murdered in the country last year alone.

This story originally appeared in the February 23, 2024 newsletter, Forced Predictability.