Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Sunday he will accept a proposal from the ELN to allow an independent commission to investigate the rebels’ alleged connections to the drug trade, an issue the government has long said helped block peace talks. Petro said the investigating body should be “scientific and independent of governments,” and that it should deliver its findings to the United Nations.
The ELN’s request was laid out in a video posted Jan. 20 by Antonio Garcia, the group’s leader. In the video, Garcia said the ELN imposes a tax on cocaine traders but also said the rebels do not run drug trafficking routes or operate cocaine labs. Garcia said, “The ELN has no relation to drug trafficking,” and he challenged the government to allow an independent commission to verify the claim.
Petro, in a message on X on Sunday, said he would accept the proposal. He added that the verification agency should be scientific and independent from governments, and that it should share its findings with the United Nations. The ELN’s alleged ties to drug trafficking have been a sticking point in negotiations with the government, according to the report.
Petro also urged the ELN to back efforts to replace coca crops in the northeastern Catatumbo region. The report noted that Petro has previously accused the rebels of profiting from the drug trade and has called the ELN leadership “drug traffickers dressed up as guerrilla fighters.”
Peace talks between the government and the ELN began early in Petro’s term but stalled during the first two years over the question of the rebels’ alleged drug activity. Negotiations broke down last year after the ELN staged an offensive in Catatumbo in which dozens of people were killed and more than 50,000 were forced to flee, the report said.
The ELN said in January that it wanted to work with the government on a “national accord” that would allow negotiations to resume. Petro has said he will only resume talks when the ELN gives up drug trafficking.
The report said the ELN was founded in the early 1960s and has about 5,000 fighters in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela. It also said the group’s control over rural areas along Colombia’s border with Venezuela has increased in recent years as it has filled a power vacuum left by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which disbanded after signing a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2017.
In a separate development mentioned in the report, Colombian officials said in January that during a call with President Donald Trump they discussed the possibility of staging attacks on the ELN with help from the U.S. military. As covered in MSI previously reported that Petro and Trump were set to meet after months of tensions, the relationship between the two governments has remained a key part of the wider security backdrop around the ELN.