Havana (BLAZETRENDS).- The negotiating teams of the Government of Colombia and the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) are going to sign this Friday the 13 protocols and technical documents that develop the ceasefire and the process of social participation.
According to sources from the negotiation to BLAZETRENDS, the nine national, bilateral and temporary ceasefire protocols have already been signed and in the next few hours the four technical documents that articulate participation will also be signed, two key elements to advance the peace process.
The Colombian government negotiator Horacio Guerrerro, in charge of the ceasefire table, assured BLAZETRENDS that the passage of this day is a “fundamental advance” in the negotiation, which has advanced like never before with the ELN.
A ceasefire towards peace
This signature is the result of the contacts that the negotiators of both parties have maintained since June 20 at two parallel tables -in Havana and Bogotá- to detail the fine print of the Cuba Agreements, signed on June 9 at end of the third cycle of dialogues.
The appointment in Havana for the signing of the protocols began last Monday and was originally scheduled to run until next Monday, but the work was brought forward and could be concluded this Friday, according to the parties.
It is expected that the Government of Colombia and the ELN will issue a joint statement throughout the day announcing the enlistment of the protocols.
The protocols are necessary so that the ceasefire can be truly implemented on the ground on August 3 -including the monitoring and verification mission- and so that the National Participation Committee, the body that must channel the contribution, can start rolling civil society at the end of the conflict.
In August the dialogues return
The face-to-face meeting in Havana is not a cycle of dialogues in itself. After the third cycle, which was held in Cuba, negotiations are scheduled to resume on August 14, with the start of the fourth cycle, again in Venezuela (where the first one already took place, last November).
In the meantime, and as had also been agreed, the two parties decreed a cessation of offensive actions in force since July 6, a previous step towards the “bilateral, national and temporary ceasefire” for 180 days.
Last week the Central Command (Coce) of the ELN ordered all its structures to “cease all offensive military actions against the Military and Police Forces throughout the national territory” and Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed a decree in similar terms. .