A graphical overview of efforts to implement the Territorially Focused Development Plans mandated by the peace accords’ first chapter on rural reform, from the government agency created to carry them out. (Link at renovacionterritorio.gov.co)
An accounting of acts of violence against local political and social leaders around the country. The MOE counts 41 killings of such leaders during the first three months of 2020.
Combat between the ELN and the Gulf Clan in rural Bojayá, Chocó, which began on March 28, forces the displacement of 193 indigenous people. 393 more people displace less than two weeks later.
In Ataco, Tolima, Carlos Alberto Castaño becomes the third former FARC combatant to be murdered in Colombia in a single week, and the sixth in the past three weeks.
A conversation with Luz Marina Monzón, director of the Unit for the Search for Disappeared People created by the peace accord, about how the Unit’s work is adjusting to the coronavirus emergency.
CERAC, a Bogotá-based think-tank with an extensive database of conflict information, finds the same number of politically motivated murders in March as in February.
Colombia announces the launch of Operation Orion V, a multi-national naval drug interdiction effort in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Orion 5 includes the participation of at least 17 countries, officials say. At the White House, President Donald Trump announces a tandem operation involving the U.S. Navy and partner nations in the same maritime space. Opposition legislators voice concern that Colombia may be participating in an operation meant to put military pressure on neighboring Venezuela.
Colombia’s National Reincorporation and Normalization Agency announces that assistance will continue, amid pandemic adjustments, to 2,893 former FARC combatants still residing at 24 demobilization sites (ETCRs). Much follow-up and support will occur via phone and internet.
A conversation with Emilio Archila, the presidential advisor for stabilization and consolidation, about how programs to reintegrate excombatants are adjusting to the coronavirus crisis.
The Colombian National Protection Unit’s Risk Assessment and Protection Measures Recommendation Committee announces that, for public health reasons, it had suspended meetings to conduct risk assessments and respond to requests for protective measures on March 19.
Former ELN leader Francisco Galán, named by the government as a “peace promoter” empowered to facilitate contacts with the guerrilla group, is freed from prison. A second former leader named a peace promoter, Felipe Torres, has an arrest order lifted. Both were wanted by a judge for their purported role in a 2000 ELN kidnapping (which occurred while both were already in prison).
The ELN rejects Galán’s and Torres’s mediation, saying the they are no longer members of the group and are instead “functionaries named by the government.” On April 8, Galán and Torres send a message to their former comrades calling on them to release kidnap victims. The ELN’s preferred interlocutor, active leader Juan Carlos Cuéllar, remains in prison.
Since 1997, John Otis has been reporting from Colombia, covering the Andes, for many news outlets. You may recognize his voice as National Public Radio’s correspondent in the Andes, or seen his many recent bylines in the Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of a highly recommended book about aspects of the conflict, Law of the Jungle (2010).
Here, John talks about some of the many changes he has seen in both Colombia and Venezuela during his tenure. The conversation also covers Colombia’s peace process, the difficulty of explaining the country’s complexity, and some places and people who’ve left very strong impressions over the years.
Caption: “La @DefensoriaCol acompaña en el aeropuerto El Dorado de Bogotá la llegada de 64 personas deportadas de Estados Unidos. Se busca, en compañía de sus familias, garantizarles sus derechos en las actuales circunstancias de cuarentena y un pronto reencuentro con sus seres queridos.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deports a planeload of 64 undocumented Colombian citizens to Bogotá. Twenty-three of them test positive for COVID-19.
The government’s Reincorporation and Normalization Agency (ARN) announces that, during the period of COVID-19 social distancing, it will continue food and medical assistance for the 2,893 FARC ex-combatants who remain in 24 former demobilization sites (ETCRs). Monthly transfers of 90 percent of minimum wage are to continue through August. Nearly all outside visits to the ETCRs have been suspended by quarantine measures, and most ARN services, like medical consultations and technical training, are being provided virtually or by telephone.
The ELN has declared a one-month ceasefire in response to the coronavirus crisis. This brief video looks at prospects for further eventual steps toward peace with the guerrilla group.
The ELN announces a unilateral ceasefire during the month of April in response to the COVID-19 emergency. The guerrillas’ statement asks the government to send negotiators to Havana to discuss making the ceasefire bilateral.
The Defendamos la Paz movement issues a statement on March 30 hailing the ELN’s decision.
The government’s high commissioner for peace, Miguel Ceballos, turns down the ELN’s demand that local military units pull back to their barracks during the ceasefire. He calls the ELN’s announcement “a good gesture, but late and insufficient,” calling on the group to make the unilateral ceasefire permanent.
The government names former ELN leaders Francisco Galán and Felipe Torres “peace promoters”—advisors and possible interlocutors with the guerrilla group. This releases Galán from preventive prison for his alleged role in a 2000 kidnapping, and suspends an arrest order against Torres.
A conversation with High Commissioner for Peace Miguel Ceballos about the ELN’s declared ceasefire in response to the coronavirus emergency, the government’s naming of two former ELN members as “peace promoters,” and allegations of Venezuelan support to Colombian armed groups.
The multi-part story of alias “Memo Fantasma,” a paramilitary drug trafficker with a long history and a low profile, who appears to have gotten away with it.