ELN Guerrillas Threaten to Return to Kidnapping in Colombia

The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) have threatened to resume kidnapping in Colombia. This was announced yesterday in a communiqué by the leadership of the illegal armed group. The government’s response has been immediate. Colombia warns that it will suspend the bilateral ceasefire with those guerrilla fronts that resume this criminal practice.

Kidnappings, what the guerrillas call “retentions for economic purposes” were, since the dialogue table with the ELN was installed, one of the points on which the government has insisted the most. The critical phase was experienced during the kidnapping of the father of the Colombian international soccer player, Luis Diaz, in October 2023, which ended happily with the release of the hostage.

After lengthy negotiations, on February 6 of this year, the ELN accepted the government’s ultimatum and committed to cease kidnapping unilaterally and temporarily. On that day the bilateral ceasefire was also extended for a further 180 days. At the same time, the dialogue table had committed itself to creating a “multi-donor fund” to contribute to the “financing of peace”.

The problem of ceasefires in Colombia

The suspension by the government of the ceasefire with some guerrilla structures is once again on the table. A few weeks ago, President Gustavo Petro ordered the suspension of the ceasefire with the front of the Central General Staff (EMC), another guerrilla with which the State is holding talks, in the department of Cauca, in the south of the country.

While this was happening, it became evident that the EMC is not a unitary structure, and that the pacts reached at the dialogue table with the government are not shared by all its members. Since the ceasefire in Cauca was suspended, tension increased exponentially, until recently President Petro ordered a “total offensive” against these criminal structures.

Now, a similar situation threatens to repeat itself with the ELN. Despite the commitment of this illegal organization to abandon kidnapping for extortion, some fronts of this guerrilla group do not seem willing to comply with the agreement. In need to demonstrate forcefulness, the Colombian government announced that it would not shake hands to resume the war with ELN fronts that resumed kidnapping.

This fact highlights the complexity of negotiating with illegal armed groups in ceasefire contexts. This was not the case during the dialogues with the now-defunct FARC, between 2012 and 2016. In those years, the State and the guerrillas were fighting in the territories simultaneously with the dialogue table that was established in Cuba.

The government did not expect this announcement from the ELN

According to sources close to the government, the State negotiators were not expecting this announcement from the ELN leadership. The parties had just agreed to sign the first point of the agreement, the one referring to the participation of civil society, before the end of May.

In addition, the government delegation had already considered the double negotiation with the ELN’s Southern Communards Front in the department of Nariño, one of the events that most upset the ELN leadership, to be unviable.

“It has always been made clear to the ELN that trade with human beings has no justification whatsoever and its elimination is not the object of any transaction by the Colombian state,” the government delegation said in a statement.

“The ELN has to make a serious decision regarding the peace process. It is out of place to make these pressures at this moment,” said Vera Grabe, chief government negotiator. For its part, the Ombudsman’s Office described the resumption of kidnappings as a sign of the ELN’s “unwillingness” to move forward with the peace talks.