Colombia agrees to extend cease-fire with ELN guerrillas for 6 months

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Colombia’s government agreed Tuesday to extend a cease-fire with the National Liberation Army (ELN), the nation’s largest remaining armed rebel group, for six months.

“There is already an agreement. Now the government needs to issue the decree so they (ELN) can give the order for a cease-fire,” said the High Commissioner for Peace, Otty Patino, speaking from the Colombian Pacific, where President Gustavo Petro’s Cabinet moved to work this week.

The agreement represents an extension of the cease-fire signed between the government and the guerrilla group on Aug. 3 last year.

Although the first six months of the cease-fire have resulted in a reduction in violence, the agreement has been at risk, especially after the kidnapping in October by the guerrillas of Manuel Diaz, the father of Liverpool soccer player Luis Diaz. The guerrillas finally freed him after 12 days of captivity. Luis’s mother was also abducted but was freed within hours.

The government has been emphatic in demanding the freedom of the rest of the people that remain hostage, and it is estimated that around 30 people remain kidnapped by the rebel group. The ELN has said that it will only stop kidnapping when it receives financing.

​​After more than a year of talks that have taken place in Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico, the Colombian government and guerrilla delegations began the sixth cycle of peace talks this week in Havana. Last week, Petro nominated Vatican City as the venue for a next round of peace talks with the ELN after meeting with Pope Francis in Rome.

The talks have suffered other setbacks, including Petro’s Dec. 31 announcement about a six-month cease-fire with the ELN, which the guerrilla group denied three days later.

The agreement is part of Petro’s "total peace" policy, an attempt to demobilize all of the country's remaining rebel groups to resolve a conflict dating back to the 1960s.