Colombia Announces that ELN Has Released All Hostages

Vera Grabe, the head of the Colombian government’s peace delegation, has announced that the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla has released all the hostages it was holding in 2023. This had been the commitment given by the illegal armed band in December, in the middle of the bilateral ceasefire with the State, and after the important crisis that the peace process experienced precisely because of this criminal practice of forced retention of people.

In a conversation with the EFE news agency, Grabe said that the ELN passed on a list of 26 people who had been kidnapped for economic purposes by the organization and who, as of today, are free. The document was reviewed by the verification mechanism of the bilateral ceasefire agreed in the peace talks that began in November 2022.

Condition for further dialogue

The release of all the hostages had been an indispensable condition imposed by the Colombian government on the armed band in order to continue with the negotiations. In addition, verifying that the 26 people reported as being held were already free was what made it possible to extend the ceasefire with the government for six more months, until next August.

The head of the Colombian peace delegation also explained to EFE that the “crisis” and the “freezing phase” announced at the beginning of February by the ELN, in reference to the situation of the peace talks, has been overcome. In fact, this week the seventh round of these talks was announced, which will resume in April in Venezuela. “We have resolved it, we have found ways, we have assumed commitments”, Grabe stated to the Spanish information agency.

Kidnappings as a basis for financing

The issue of kidnappings was the subject of deep and bitter debate, as the ELN justified it as a way to finance the lives of its combatants. Moreover, Pablo Beltran, the head of the peace delegation of this illegal organization, went so far as to explain that kidnapping was not part of the commitments given in the initial ceasefire.

“When we signed the ceasefire protocols in Havana, it was clear that financial activities were not included in the ceasefire. We regulate ourselves and have our own rules; that we carry out financial activities to sustain the rebellion; and that in the zones where we are we have to maintain social cohesion. We are together with the people”, the guerrilla leader explained in his social networks.

Similarly, the top leader of this illegal organization, alias Antonio Garcia, arguing to justify this criminal practice, said that they did not have kidnapped people, because for them this practice consisted in the “retention” of what he called “prisoners” of war. Garcia again defended these “retentions” as a way to finance themselves and asked to solve the “economic issue” in order to abandon them. These words provoked a cascade of reactions from the political opponents of the peace process, who saw in them a blackmail of the State.

Agreement for releases

The ELN eventually agreed to recognize the number of people it was holding and arrange for their release by the end of January 2024, following the fifth round of talks held in Mexico.

In the sixth, and so far last cycle of peace talks, the one that ended this month in Cuba, the guerrillas pledged not to kidnap again, agreeing with the Colombian State on a “multi-donor fund to finance the peace process”. Once again, the Colombian opposition criticized this aspect, as it was denounced as a covert way to finance the illegal armed organization.

Colombia’s peace delegation has denied that these funds will end up being used for criminal purposes. “These funds are not money for war or for armed action, that is clearly established, they are peace actions, that is the sense (of it) and there is a commitment from the international community. The UN and other countries do not get into something that is not guaranteed to go for peace”, explained Vera Grabe to W Radio.