Guerrilla leader accuses Colombian state of sabotaging peace and says Petro government is giving in to the right wing.

By Lorenzo Santiago and Lucas Estanislau, Brazil of Fact - Caracas (Venezuela) and São Paulo (SP) - Antonio Garcia has been a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) for 50 years. The group presents itself as a revolutionary movement inspired by the Cuban Revolution and has an armed presence in Colombia, blending Marxist-Leninist theory with liberation theology. Since 1975, Garcia has coordinated and played a leadership role in the guerrilla group.

He is one of the few in the guerrilla group who has no problem maintaining a relationship with the press. And being a kind of bridge with journalists is not Garcia's only task. He assumed the position of commander of the ELN in 1980, after the death of Manuel Pérez, known as "El Cura," and became one of the main people responsible for increasing the group's military capacity.

Today, he is also one of the ELN's interlocutors in negotiations with the Colombian government within the framework of the peace talks. With the recent security crisis involving the guerrilla group and the Army, Garcia does not hesitate to say that Gustavo Petro's administration has a policy that does not seek peace, but rather aims to "demobilize the ELN."

The group's leadership responded to a report by Brasil de Fato in an exclusive interview, discussing the guerrillas' relationship with the government, peace negotiations, recent episodes of violence in the Catatumbo region, and the participation of other countries in the search for peace in Colombia.

Today, talks between the guerrilla group and the Executive branch are suspended. According to Garcia, there is no reason to remain at the table if the government itself sabotages peace by "not respecting the agreements made." He believes that attacks by the Army in recent months demonstrate this non-compliance.

“This sets a precedent and provides an important lesson: for the State, the negotiation has no other objective than to achieve the demobilization of the ELN, and not to seek the structural transformations that the country has demanded for decades. The ELN has already stated that, as long as the government fulfills what was agreed upon at the negotiating table, it can remove obstacles from the path to unfreezing the dialogues. For our part, the ELN ratifies its commitment to the agreements when we say and fulfill its maxim: 'sign to comply',” he told Brasil de Fato.

For Garcia, this is symptomatic of a left-wing government making "concessions" to the right. The group's leader says he supports political measures that benefit the people and is "critical when they affect popular interests." The ELN understands that there is also frustration with the "few achievements" in the reforms promised during the campaign and the need to form alliances with business sectors in order to govern.

“Petro achieved governability through alliances with traditional political sectors, which prevented change. On the other hand, he is very inclined to ally with the ruling parties to reconcile, and when they fail to comply, he resorts to popular support. He has never made clear what the path to achieving change is. This is a dilemma for all progressive governments, which do not dare to break with the dominant order: to move from the capitalist economic order to the construction of an alternative power to bourgeois institutions. To survive, they tend to concede more and more to the right-wing opposition until their government project is emptied of any transformative element,” he said.

Broken agreements

Garcia was born in the city of Mocoa, in the state of Putumayo, in 1956. From an early age, he was involved in political activities. His main role model was Camilo Torres, the revolutionary Catholic priest who joined the ELN and was killed in combat in 1966.

Throughout his five decades with the ELN, negotiation was one of the key skills Garcia developed. First during the armed struggle and then in formal negotiations with the government. In 2016, then-President Juan Manuel Santos opened a channel of dialogue with the ELN in pursuit of a peace process. Garcia was one of the main interlocutors.

Even without much progress, the ELN leader managed to establish the group's position and has now assumed the same role with Petro. The two sides managed to maintain a ceasefire until August 2024 and have continued negotiations since then, but with a series of ups and downs in the talks.

The latest of these occurred at the beginning of February. The government and the ELN left the negotiating table after episodes of violence in the Catatumbo region, in the far east of Colombia. The conflicts were triggered by a dissident guerrilla group from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which left at least 56 dead and more than 32 people displaced.

The Colombian government itself stated that it was suspending peace negotiations. Petro said the group was committing "war crimes" because it was attacking civilians.

The president then decreed a "state of internal commotion," the equivalent of a 90-day military intervention, and declared an economic emergency. Even while stating that the "ELN will follow the path of war it has chosen," the Executive also acknowledged the failure of negotiations and stated that it had lost hope of "making a revolution by governing."

He himself had already said in September that negotiations with the ELN were practically over. Permanent dialogue with armed groups has been implemented by the Colombian president since the beginning of his term in 2022. The president transformed "Total Peace" into state policy following the approval of Law 418, which establishes the Colombian state's commitment to maintaining contact to negotiate an end to the conflicts between these groups.

The escalating security crisis in Catatumbo has abruptly fragmented a peace process that had been underway for almost three years. Both sides accuse each other of breaking an agreement that seemed to be progressing. According to the guerrillas, the decision to "freeze" the talks was made because Gustavo Petro's government "broke with what had been signed."

Garcia cites as an example the agreement made between the government and the former FARC, one of the main Colombian guerrilla groups. The agreement, signed on September 26, 2016, promised an end to an internal war that has left more than 260 dead throughout history. After the agreement, seven thousand guerrillas entered civilian life. The FARC-EP surrendered their weapons and transformed into the Alternative Revolutionary Force of the Common People party.

For the ELN leader, however, this history stopped at the "promise," since violence and conflicts between guerrillas, paramilitaries, and the Army have persisted in the country. According to him, this "disarmament" agreement with the FARC also reflects the way the government negotiates with popular movements.

“In the failed FARC peace process, this insurgency laid down its arms and demobilized in exchange for promises of reforms that were not fulfilled. This also happened with the social and popular movements that have been negotiating with the Colombian state,” he said.

External participation

Garcia understands that the presence of other governments in the negotiations is important, especially Venezuela. Besides being a guarantor of the peace talks, the country is a "stabilizing" agent in the negotiations, having hosted some meetings and contributed to the dialogues. According to him, the governments of Hugo Chávez and, now, Nicolás Maduro "express a commitment" to a negotiated solution in Colombia.

Brazil is another country that also participates in these dialogues. The Brazilian ambassador in Caracas, Glivânia Maria de Oliveira, herself participated in the negotiations. The head of the ELN states that this presence is important mainly because of the influence Brazil has in multilateral forums, such as BRICS.

Even though popular movements did not participate in the dialogues, Garcia says he has a very strong affinity with the struggle of groups whose agenda is the defense of land, territory, and resources of the working class. For him, the dispute over strategic resources in the Amazon is fundamental to the Brazilian debate.

“Brazil has many strategic resources that are of fundamental interest to US imperialism at this stage. These resources are located in territories where landless and land-owning peasants, indigenous people, and quilombola communities live. The Amazon region is becoming an epicenter of the continental dispute over resources. A period of greater social conflict is predicted in Brazil due to the dispute over resources. Contributing to the search for unity in the struggles of our America is a strategic purpose of the ELN, which is a Guevarist organization with an internationalist focus,” he said.

The return of Donald Trump to the White House is also a point of concern identified by Garcia. According to him, US policy has always been the same, but the current moment is one of fragility in the global dispute, which allows the US government to adopt an even more aggressive stance and reinforce one of its objectives in South America: to eliminate the ELN.

"This will mean, among other things, eliminating or neutralizing all resistance that exists in the region: the Cuban Revolution, the Bolivarian Revolution, and the last revolutionary insurgency on the continent, the ELN," he stated.

Check out the full interview:

Brasil de Fato: What is the current status of the peace talks with the Colombian government, and what are the prospects for the peace negotiations?

Antonio Garcia: Currently, this process is suspended. President Gustavo Petro formally did this on January 17th, using the events in Catatumbo as a pretext. But the truth is that the ELN had already "frozen" dialogues with the government since April 2024 because the government failed to comply with the agreements. It was decided to remove the ELN from the list of Organized Armed Groups (GAO), a term that refers to organized crime. The ELN is an armed rebel political organization.

The year-long ceasefire (the longest in the ELN's history) was violated several times by the State, which carried out offensive operations against the ELN. The State also maintained its support and coordination with paramilitaries against ELN guerrilla territories and forces.

Seeing that the government was unwilling to comply with what had been agreed upon at the negotiating table, the ELN decided to freeze the negotiations, since the fundamental premise of a peace negotiating table is to agree in order to comply, not to break agreements.

In the failed FARC peace process, this insurgency laid down its arms and demobilized in exchange for promises of reforms that were never fulfilled. The same thing happened with the social and popular movements that have been negotiating with the Colombian state.

This sets a precedent and provides an important lesson: for the State, the negotiation has no other objective than to achieve the demobilization of the ELN, and not to seek the structural transformations that the country has demanded for decades.

The ELN has already stated that, as long as the government fulfills what was agreed upon at the negotiating table, it can remove obstacles from the path to unfreezing the dialogues. For our part, the ELN reaffirms our commitment to fulfilling agreements, as we have said and upheld our motto: to sign is to fulfill.

In your opinion, what is Petro's government doing right and what is it doing wrong in the peace processes?

We have said that we support the government when it implements policies that benefit the people, especially the poorest, and we are critical when they affect the interests of the people.

Petro's government has made few achievements in the reforms it promised during the election campaign. It came to power by capitalizing on the wave of protests and the "social explosion" of 2021, but managed to gain governability by forging alliances with traditional political sectors, which did everything to prevent the changes Petro promised. On the other hand, it is very inclined to ally with the ruling parties seeking conciliation and, when they fail to deliver, resorts to popular support. This is a double standard that, in politics, doesn't accumulate, but rather wears down. It has never made clear what the path to achieving change is.

This is a dilemma faced by all progressive governments, which do not dare to break with the dominant order, to move from the capitalist economic system to the construction of a power alternative to bourgeois institutions. In order to survive, they tend to concede more and more to the right-wing opposition until their government project is emptied of any transformative element.

With his televised Council of Ministers meeting, he created a crisis to open up spaces in his government for other parties, even sacrificing people who might be closest to the Historic Pact project.

What are the ELN's demands today for a ceasefire in the Catatumbo region? Is removal from the list of Organized Armed Groups (GAO) the main one?

The ceasefire agreement covered the entire national territory, which naturally included Catatumbo. Initially, we agreed to a six-month period, then we extended it for another six months, totaling a one-year ceasefire, which represents the longest ceasefire in the history of the ELN.

As previously stated, continuing the ceasefire depended on the government fulfilling the agreements already reached in the dialogue process, agreements that were monitored by the international community, by the guarantor and monitoring countries of this peace process. Among them is the agreement to remove the ELN from the list of Organized Armed Groups, but, as already mentioned, there have been other breaches that are not accidental, but intentional. A tactic that seeks to subvert the dialogue process and lead the ELN down a path of disarmament, as happened with the FARC.

In recent meetings, the ELN has been asking for compliance with what has already been signed. It's nothing new, just what has already been written and signed.

In your assessment, what were the ELN's successes and failures in the peace negotiation process? Is the ELN responsible for the increased tension in Catatumbo?

The military operations in Catatumbo in mid-January 2025 are more a response from the ELN to the state's counter-insurgency strategy, which is clearly advised and directed by Washington.

It all began with a false flag operation, where a humble family from the region was murdered, and this death was later attributed to the ELN. We denied this from the beginning, clarifying that the intellectual and material author was the 33rd Front, a former FARC group, a fact that has already been corroborated by the Colombian prosecutor's office itself, which has already arrested those responsible for the murder.

In addition to these operations, the 33rd Front group was already violating territorial agreements signed with the ELN, imposing things on communities with the complicity of the Military Forces. A scenario was created to apply its counter-insurgency strategy in all its dimensions, financing itself with drug trafficking money, as had already happened before, allowing paramilitary leaders such as Salvatores Mancuso, Carlos Castaño, and Jorge 40.

When this group was confronted by force by the ELN, the Military Forces came to their aid. The military protects and cares for them and will now bring in mercenaries from the Gulf Clan to provide weapons and troops so that government forces suffer no casualties, just as they do in proxy – or subsidized – wars elsewhere.

Let us remember that false flag operations are old tactics, covert operations aimed at creating episodes that later serve as a pretext to justify military interventions.

This action was intended to start a "total war" against the ELN, and for this reason they justified the declaration of military intervention, indicating that the ELN had committed war crimes and completely militarized the region.

In several regions of the country, armed clashes have been recorded between the ELN, paramilitaries of the Gulf Clan, and paramilitaries of the former FARC, operating jointly and in coordination with the Colombian Armed Forces in Cauca, Arauca, Chocó, and southern Bolívar. But in none of these cases was intervention declared. Why? Well, none of these regions border Venezuela.

Operation Catatumbo represents a counter-insurgency operation aimed at weakening the ELN through military and media campaigns to reduce its impact. As the only armed revolutionary organization questioning the mismanagement and reformist nature of this government, Petro aims to gain the acceptance of the oligarchy and US imperialism.

How is the ELN's work progressing regarding the departure of people who want to leave Catatumbo?

First of all, the ELN does not displace people. This is prohibited in our internal statutes as an insurgent organization. We understand that the intensification of the conflict has caused fear and, consequently, the displacement of the population. People linked to the former FARC of the 33rd Front generated panic in order to protect themselves, but their armed groups surrendered, weapons and all, to the ELN and their lives were spared. Many others were captured alive in the fighting and their lives were also spared, and therefore, people have no reason to be afraid; they can return whenever they want. We are talking to several who left Catatumbo and are afraid to return. The idea is that they return, because it is in everyone's interest that the region returns to normal.

What role has Venezuela played in the negotiations? Is there dialogue with the Venezuelan government?

Venezuela has been the guarantor of the dialogue process with the ELN since the negotiations with the government of Juan Manuel Santos (2012-2018). Commander Hugo Chávez always expressed his commitment to a negotiated political solution to the Colombian conflict, a commitment that President Nicolás Maduro maintains.

This is despite the Colombian state maintaining agreements with the Pentagon to promote "regime change" in Venezuela. Several destabilizing operations were orchestrated from Colombia against the Bolivarian Revolution, such as Juan Guaidó's self-proclamation as president in 2019 and Operation Gideon in 2020. However, Venezuela used its territory, security, and logistics to hold meetings and encounters in the dialogue processes between the government and the ELN, as it also did with the FARC dialogues at the time.

For the ELN, Venezuela is a stabilizing factor in the region because it has played an important role in almost all peace processes in Colombia.

To what extent does Donald Trump's return to the US presidency impact this process?

Imperial politics is one and the same, sometimes masquerading as democratic and sometimes as republican. The differences are tactical, not strategic.

Trump enters his second term to lead an empire in frank decline, with the clear mission of halting this decline and, as far as possible, recovering lost hegemony. Our America has always been the vital space of US imperialist hegemony. Therefore, it constantly resurrects the Monroe Doctrine, in updated versions of hybrid warfare and full-spectrum dominance.

Structurally, the United States suffers from economic weakness after decades of deindustrialization. The economy has become financialized and is now very difficult to reactivate because it needs a material base. Therefore, imperialism seeks this material base through the appropriation of goods, strategic and energy resources, fertile lands, and minerals from other countries and peoples. This is one of the strategic motivations behind the intention to appropriate Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, and Ukrainian lands. That is, we are facing a period of imperialist recolonization throughout the region.

Another strategic objective of the Yankee empire is to counter the influence of China and Russia in the region and to do everything possible to block the emergence of a multipolar world order.

This will mean, among other things, eliminating or neutralizing all resistance that exists in the region: the Cuban Revolution, the Bolivarian Revolution, and the last revolutionary insurgency on the continent, the ELN.

The United States will pressure the Colombian government to achieve the demobilization and disarmament of the ELN through tactics combined with a military counterinsurgency campaign and a negotiation process to try to get the guerrilla group to surrender.

It is in this context that we must understand both the conflict in Catatumbo and the stagnation of the dialogue process.

In short, with Trump it is reasonable to expect greater imperialist interference in the region of our America, with more government change operations, hybrid warfare and destabilization.

Have the Brazilian government or Brazilian popular movements shown a willingness to participate in some way and could they help in these discussions?

Brazil has been one of the five countries guaranteeing the Dialogue Table with the ELN, from the Dilma Rousseff administration to the present day. During negotiations with the Santos government, there was even a meeting between the two delegations on Brazilian soil.

The support of the Brazilian government at the negotiating table is important, especially because Brazil is a member of BRICS. Brazil can play a strategic role in the search for a political solution to the conflict in Colombia.

Regarding Brazilian social and popular movements: although they have not had an impact on the dialogue process, the ELN is very attentive to the developments of the Brazilian social struggle.

Brazil possesses many strategic resources that are of fundamental interest to US imperialism at this stage. These resources are located in territories inhabited by landless and land-owning peasants, indigenous peoples, and quilombola communities. The Amazon region is becoming an epicenter of the continental struggle for resources.

A period of heightened social conflict is predicted in Brazil due to disputes over resources. The ELN identifies very closely with the struggle to defend the land, territory, and resources of the Brazilian working class. Contributing to the pursuit of unity in the struggles of our America is a strategic purpose of the ELN, which is a Guevarist organization with an internationalist focus.