The Colombian Church urges the resumption of talks with the government and the guerrillas

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – In Colombia, the Church continues to push for the resumption of peace talks between President Gustavo Petro’s government and the left-wing guerrilla organization National Liberation Army (ELN), despite a major crisis in negotiations.

In recent weeks, serious attacks on military targets by the ELN have all but ended any possible resumption of dialogue between the government and the guerrillas, which has been mediated by the Church since its inception in 2022.

A year-long ceasefire maintained by both sides ended in August and has not been renewed. Shortly after the term expired, the ELN launched a number of operations against the armed forces. In early September, two soldiers were killed in an attack on a road in Arauca, a region on the border with Venezuela.

Two days later, the group exploded part of an oil pipeline in Boyacá, also on the border with Venezuela. The structure, controlled by the state oil company, was partially disrupted, spilling oil into nearby rivers, causing an environmental problem.

The most shocking attack took place on September 17, when guerrillas launched explosives at a military base in Puerto Jordán, Arauca, killing two soldiers and wounding 26 others. President Petro declared that day that it was “an action that practically ended a peace process in blood.”

The talks were paralyzed as the ELN accused the government of failing to meet some of the conditions it set, most notably the removal of the guerrilla group from the list of organized armed groups – a classification that also includes criminal gangs.

Divisions within the ELN, with the uprising of a battalion in the southern part of the country – which also began its own peace talks with the government – ​​also complicated the scenario.

Despite so many obstacles, Petro told the press during his trip to the United States on September 24 that “the ball is now in their (ELN) court.”

“It’s up to them. Either they throw away peace or they build it,” the president said.

The Church is not willing to allow the entire process to be easily dismissed by any of the parties involved. On September 23, the heads of the Bishops’ Conference released a letter on the negotiations.

The document, addressed to the government and the guerrilla organization, said the Church “feels the call to promote brotherhood among all Colombians and the unity of the nation in the pursuit of the common good.”

“We appreciate and encourage, as a sign of hope, the historic task you have taken on to move forward in a peace project, with the participation of society and the options in terms of aid, dynamism and humanitarian actions available agreement has been reached from the start.” write the signatories: Archbishop Francisco Múnera of Cartagena, the president of the conference, Archbishop Gabriel Villa Vahos of Tunja, the vice-president of the conference, and Bishop German Medina of Engativá, the secretary general of the conference.

The bishops asked the parties to maintain a channel of communication in order to conduct dialogue in “a moment of difficulty” and urged them to meet again so that they can make progress and benefit the communities in the middle of the confrontations.

“We believe that it is fundamental to clear the negotiating table so that we can continue to develop the agreements reached and thus respond to the people’s calls for a ceasefire,” the letter continued.

According to Father Hector Henao, a longtime peace negotiator in Colombia who represents the Church in these dialogues, “the peace talks are not yet lost, but both sides must take steps to resume them.”

“Of course, the attacks on the Venezuelan border have changed the landscape. Things are much more complex now. Public opinion received them with great concern, especially because there were fatalities,” Henao said Crux.

But there appears to be a willingness on the part of the government and the ELN to resume negotiations. Petro, himself a former member of a guerrilla group, has emphasized since his campaign the need to achieve total peace in Colombia.

Not only did his former organization, the M-19, agree to abandon its weapons and become a formal political group in 1990, but also the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once the country’s largest left-wing guerrilla with no fewer than 10,000 members, did so in 2016.

“We are hopeful that they can find solutions and alternative paths to tackle the obstacles and return to the negotiating table,” Henao said.

He said the Church maintains communication channels with the ELN and has sent all statements and letters from the bishops to the organization.

“That is a big task for us and for them. We will continue to push,” he said.