The Colombian government and the main Colombian guerrilla, the National Liberation Army (ELN), announced this Friday in Cuba a national, bilateral and temporary ceasefire, which will begin on August 3 and will last six months. This is the longest truce agreed between the Colombian state and the Marxist guerrillas.
However, and despite this temporary period of half a year, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, was very optimistic and assured that “in May 2025 the decades-long war between the ELN and the State will definitively cease.” However, Petro clarified that it is a “promise” made in the framework of negotiations with that guerrilla, the largest of the armed groups that survive in Colombia after the abandonment of weapons by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the 2016.
The historic and surprising announcement of the ceasefire was made in Havana, during an act in which Petro and the first commander of the ELN, Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, alias Antonio GarcÃa, were present, separated by the president of Cuba, Miguel DÃaz. -Canel.
With this act, the third round of negotiations between the guerrillas and the government, which took place since last May 2 in Havana, came to a successful end. The fourth round of talks will take place in Caracas between August 14 and September 4, when the ceasefire will have started. The Venezuelan capital has alternated with Havana as the venue for negotiations between the ELN and the Petro government, which began contacts with the guerrillas a few days after the president assumed power in August last year.
DÃaz-Canel spoke during the event and was also optimistic, encouraging both parties to reach a definitive agreement. “We encourage them to continue advancing and to take advantage of this historical context,” said the Cuban president, who assured that peace “is possible.”
The agreed ceasefire consists of a first phase, which will end on July 6. From now until that date, both the Armed Forces and the guerrillas will order their units to suspend hostilities. Therefore, between July 6 and August 3, there should no longer be confrontations, but to avoid what happened in other truces, such a wide margin will be left. A sign that both parties want to take firm steps and prevent any incident from throwing the truce to the ground.
