Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace, Ivan Danilo Rueda, announced on Friday that steps will be taken to resume the dialogue with the National Liberation Army, ELN, the guerrilla group that has long shaped the country’s conflict landscape.
Rueda spoke in Havana during a visit with the Colombian Foreign Minister, Alvaro Leyva, to explore the possibility of restarting talks with the ELN. The aim was clear: open a pathway to renewed negotiations that could lead to a political settlement.
Both sides expressed a shared commitment to beginning the dialogue process and to pursuing a vision of lasting peace. The goal is a peace that is stable, durable, and embedded in sustainable arrangements that address the needs of all Colombians.
The High Commissioner emphasized that the government is prepared to consider political and legal measures that will guarantee favorable conditions for resuming negotiations with the ELN. This includes creating spaces for inclusive discussion and ensuring that talks can proceed without undue impediments.
Rueda noted the ELN’s expressed desire for dialogue and acknowledged the legitimacy of that aspiration in the search for peace. He also highlighted signals from various segments of society calling for an end to hostilities and a transition to peaceful engagement.
The visit by Rueda and Leyva followed remarks by President Gustavo Petro, who had just taken office the previous Sunday. In the early days of his term, Petro pledged to continue efforts to engage the ELN in meaningful talks and stated that it would be announced in the coming weeks whether negotiations would resume in Cuba or elsewhere.
Negotiations with the ELN began in 2017 during Juan Manuel Santos’s presidency and were moved to Havana in 2018, where key leaders have remained. The process was largely halted under the Iván Duque administration, but momentum appears to be returning as Petro signals a renewed push to bring the group back to the table.
Petro has called for a return to the protocol that previously guided the talks, which allowed ELN discussions to continue in Havana. He also indicated that Cuba and Norway should continue as guarantors or that new guarantor states could be added to support the process.
In a recent interview with CM&News, ELN commander Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, known by the alias Anthony Garcia, stated that negotiations should resume from the point where they stalled, suggesting a continuity of dialogue rather than a restart from scratch.
The ELN, whose influence has grown in recent years, has seen Petro repeatedly express his intention to rejoin negotiations with the government in pursuit of a political settlement. The talks were halted in 2018 after the government requested the ELN release all hostages and abandon criminal activities associated with the group.
Following the 2019 attack on the General Santander Cadet School in Bogota, which left 22 dead and 68 injured, Colombia asked Cuba to extradite the negotiators in Havana. Havana, however, maintained diplomatic protocols that did not compel Cuba to surrender the emissaries, complicating the path to resuming talks. government briefings and ongoing diplomatic communications.