Colombia reaches cease-fire deal with last guerrilla group

BOGOTA, Colombia — The government and the last remaining major rebel group signed a bilateral cease-fire on Monday, an agreement seen as a significant step toward negotiating a permanent peace deal.

The deal struck in Quito, Ecuador, where talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, have been taking place since February, goes into effect on Oct 1. It runs through Jan 12 and can be renewed if both sides agree.

The 2,000-strong ELN is Colombia’s second-largest rebel group, after the now dismantled Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which signed a peace deal with the government in November that paved the way for the group’s transition to a political party.

Under the cease-fire, the rebels agreed to suspend attacks on infrastructure, kidnappings and recruitment of minors. In exchange the government has vowed to boost protection for social leaders who have recently come under attack and develop a program that would provide humanitarian aid to rebels, among other measures.

President Juan Manuel Santos welcomed “this important advance toward full peace for Colombians”, in a message posted to Twitter.

The government’s chief negotiator called the ceasefire, signed five years to the date after a framework agreement that kicked off peace talks with the FARC, “historic”.

“This is the first agreement of this nature that the government has signed with this guerrilla group in more than 50 years,” Juan Camilo Restrepo said in a statement. “And it constitutes the first step toward advancing a definitive peace.”

Over five decades of conflict involving the two rebel movements, the army and rightwing paramilitary groups have resulted in more than 260,000 deaths, the disappearance of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of 6 million.

Under the earlier deal between the government and the FARC, the group has turned over its weapons and is in the process of reorganizing as a political movement to compete in elections next year.

But negotiations with the more ideological and less centralized ELN have been slower since exploratory talks began more than three years ago.

Unlike the FARC, which financed itself through involvement in Colombia’s flourishing drug trade, the ELN funds its insurgency mainly through kidnappings and extortion.

Until now it has refused to abandon those practices, earning the enmity of many Colombians who want Santos to take a tougher line in talks than he did with the FARC.

“The priority is protecting citizens,” Santos said. “That’s why during this period the kidnappings, attacks on oil pipelines and other hostilities against the civilian population will cease.”