The government of Petro is meeting with the ELN for the third time in search of peace

new term in between The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army guerrillas (ELN) move towards a peace pact. The third round of negotiations between the Executive Committee of Gustavo Petro and the subversive group began this Tuesday in Havana, after weeks of high tensions and days in which the future of the dialogue was called into question.

“If Colombia’s problems are big, structural, we cannot stay in cosmetic or superficial things» said this monday alias Paul Beltranhead of the ELN negotiating team, assuring that the aim of the round of meetings is to establish a “preliminary ceasefire that works one hundred percent”.

It was this issue that caused the first major shock in the peace process with the ELN, after the first meetings, held in Caracas in November, marked significant progress when it comes to the agreement on humanitarian aid in the territories where the ELN is present.

Things took a turn for the worse in late December, when Petro, who had promised a peace pact with the ELN during his campaign three months after taking office, announced a bilateral ceasefire with the subversive group, which There are about 3,500 armed men and is the largest active guerrilla in Colombia. ELN commanders hastened to deny that this was true, and then the first dialectical conflicts occurred.

Both sides ironed out rough edges in a second round of talks held in February in Mexico, but an ELN attack on a military platoon in the troubled Catatumbo region, which left nine soldiers deadit significantly raised the tension between the two sides.

The guerrilla’s desire for peace and the ability of its leaders to unite different fronts around the process have been questioned. The ELN is a less centralized group than the extinct FARC, and thus negotiations are more complicated and prone to disagreements. “We do not look at this peace process with good eyes”, the guerrilla Western Front pointed out at the end of March. The fighters described the project as “neoliberal”, sowing concern in sectors that actively support the peace process in Colombia.

Beltrán has now assured that ELN negotiators have command of all guerrilla fronts in Colombia and that “two very extensive meetings” were held with different commands before arriving in Havana.

The process with ELN is the cornerstone of Peter’s project of complete peace, which is also negotiating with FARC dissidents and the narco-paramilitary Clan del Golfo. The government also announced a ceasefire with the latter group in December, but the left-wing president suspended it in March after accusing them of being behind a miners’ strike that left millions in losses. It could come back into effect soon. Both sides recently made progress, according to El Tiempo newspaper, on a blueprint to establish a new ceasefire.