Ceasefire With Colombian Rebels ELN To Come Into Effect

On Sunday (October 1), the Colombian government and the country's largest active rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), will begin their first bilateral ceasefire, which is set to run through mid-January next year.

Inspired by the Cuban revolution and the Liberation Theology of the Catholic priests that founded it in the 1960s, the 2,000-strong ELN has sought peace before, holding talks in Cuba and Venezuela between 2002 and 2007. Both collapsed with little progress. Bogota and the ELN are currently in peace talks in Ecuador in hopes that the rebels will end their part in a conflict involving government troops, leftist rebels, crime gangs and right-wing paramilitaries.

 Since negotiations began in February, the ELN has continued to take hostages for ransom and in recent weeks stepped up bomb attacks on oil companies. It has pledged, however, that during the ceasefire, it will suspend hostage taking, attacks on roads and oil installations, the use of land mines and the recruitment of minors. In turn, the government agreed to improve protection for community leaders and conditions for about 450 jailed rebels.

 The ELN is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union for engaging in kidnapping, assassinations, drug trafficking, attacks on economic infrastructure and extortion of oil and mining multinationals. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in late 2016 after negotiations in Cuba that lasted four years. "The ELN is completely mistaken if they believe that with military acts and attacks of this kind, they are constructing the route towards peace, if they think that they are going to arrive in a stronger position to the negotiating table, they are totally mistaken," Santos had said in 2016.

 ELN's chief negotiator Pablo Beltran said, "This ceasefire is designed as a relief to the population that suffers the most, and the commitment that each of the parties have made are primarily designed for this. They are meant to provide this relief. It's a challenge for us to comply with all the agreements that we've made a pact to with this agreement. We hope to honor our word, and (hope) that there is also more trust for peace in Colombia."

 Conflict analyst  Ariel Avila describes the rebel group and the situation as "The FARC is an army trying to practice politics; the ELN is a political organization trying to wage war. In other words, the ELN may have a small number of armed fighters, but its social base is much larger than that of the FARC. They (the ELN) are in many more urban places than the FARC. So, it is not right to measure them by the numbers of armed men, but yes, they have more or less 2,500 armed men and some 5,000 or 60, 000 civil members, but the ELN is not just that, it is much more, its political base is much wider."

 The five-decades long conflict left over 2,20,000 dead and millions displaced.