On Friday, June 9th, Colombian President Gustavo Petro and the citizens of Colombia celebrated the signing of a peace agreement with the National Liberation Army (ELN). President Gustavo Petro and the ELN, Colombia’s biggest guerrilla group, agreed on a six-month nationwide ceasefire, a considerable step towards amity. Colombia is pleased with this development, as this is only the second agreement they have made with the ELN. The previous ceasefire was signed in 2017 and only lasted 101 days. 

This is significant progress for the country. At a ceremony in Cuba, President Petro said, “In the end, peace is built by correcting wrong paths and by building new ones, because there is nothing more revolutionary … than peace.” 

This agreement has sparked optimism. Mauricio Capaz, an Indigenous Nasa leader working at the department of Cauca, said: “It’s very significant for us because it could be the beginning of a scenario through which we could achieve much more.” An ELN negotiator, Aureliano Carbonell, stated that “This process can help generate conditions for peace through which the country can take a new direction.”

The ceasefire is set to begin on August 3 and last for 180 days. All parties are taking a precautious route to implementing regulations, allowing for protocols to be clearly established, for the community to be aware and involved in these steps, and for there to be an extensive monitoring procedure. The United Nations’ sector in Colombia and the Catholic Church are going to be monitoring the ceasefire, to guarantee both sides are in line with international humanitarian laws. 

At the end of the 180 days, if the Colombian government and the ELN are both satisfied and in agreement, they can negotiate a continuance of the ceasefire.

Colombia has faced decades of detrimental internal violent conflict, leaving over 450,000 people dead and countless more homeless and harmed. As a result of a peace deal in 2016, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was demobilized and the ELN became the largest remaining rebel group with around 3,000 soldiers. 

The government is hopeful that the new agreement will be influential in beginning a ‘total peace’ within Colombia, one of Petro’s main promises in his presidential campaign. Petro has sworn to move away from violent approaches to address conflict and instead lead through humane negotiations. 

Although this ceasefire is a step in the right direction, experts are worried it may not be enough. The agreement will stop any fighting between the government and the ELN, however many experts argue that the center of tension does not revolve around the state, rather, the violence is driven by conflict between competing rebel groups. 

“The main deficit of this agreement is that it’s not a cessation of hostilities, which is really what is required in order to affect the humanitarian conditions on the ground. It’s strictly a ceasefire,” Elizabeth Dickinson, a member of the International Crisis Group in Colombia, stated. Dickinson fears that the ELN can find ways around this and still spark conflict and intimidation against other parties and armed groups. The ELN’s vicious strategies include extortion operations, kidnapping, armed assaults, and assassinations.   

The ELN has yet to announce if it will stop all hostile actions towards other groups. The ELN negotiator, Cabonell, said “It’s an issue that’s being worked on. If one side does not comply, the other side is not obliged to, either. But we’re working so that this process is welcomed by the ELN as a whole.”

So far, the government and the ELN have embraced the ceasefire agreement. However, for many local citizens, hope is tinted with continuous fear and wariness. Experts believe that this is just the first step of what should be a larger discussion if peace is truly the end goal. Indigenous Nasa leader in Colombia, Mauricio Capaz, confidently states: “We cannot continue burying our dead or being displaced in order to discuss these kinds of issues that are structural and complicated. A multilateral ceasefire is fundamental.”