The last guerrilla group active in Colombia, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has announced that it will begin a truce with the country’s army at midnight on Wednesday, which was also confirmed by the defense ministry. The ELN has said it will still defend itself against any acts of aggression by the army or other armed groups. The truce will last about a month and is the first phase of a broader ceasefire foreseen by an agreement reached on June 9 between the Colombian government and the leaders of the ELN, with the mediation of Cuba.
The actual ceasefire will begin on August 3 and will last for six months: if respected, it would be the longest interruption in hostilities between the Colombian government and the ELN since its inception in 1964. The movement is a group of Marxist-Leninist guerrillas with around 3,500 members, and is considered the last leftist armed group still active in Colombia. The ELN is accused of financing itself through illegal mining operations and drug trafficking.
However, there is some skepticism about the success of the peace process: the same day that the ceasefire was announced in June, the ELN had killed three policemen, and the week before the government forces had killed six guerrillas.
The Colombian president Gustavo Petro, who took office in August 2022 and in turn a former member of the revolutionary group M-19, active in the 1970s and 1980s, had promised in the electoral campaign to complete the peace process with the still active armed groups in the country. In 2016, the Colombian government signed a peace treaty with the main of these groups, the FARC.