ELN Announces Bilateral Cease-Fire with Colombian Govt

The National Liberation Army has announced a temporary and bilateral cease-fire with the Colombian government.

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The group, known by its Spanish initials ELN, said that the cease-fire will be implemented from Oct. 1, 2017 to Jan. 9, 2018.

In a message on the YouTube channel, ELN Paz, Commander Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista ordered ELN members to abide by the cease-fire agreed to in September during peace talks in Quito, Ecuador.

“Commanders, officers, colleagues, today — September 29 — I order all troops along the length and breadth of the national territory to stop all offensive activities to comply entirely with the bilateral cease-fire that the Colombian government and the ELN have pledged to uphold,” said Bautista.

“I have no doubt of your loyalty in fulfilling this commitment at all cost,” he added.

The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, said that the cease-fire was “an extremely important step forward, a step that we hope will be the first step toward a process that will also lead to the ELN disarming as the FARC have done.”

The ELN took up arms in 1964 and is the last active insurgency group in Colombia.