“Venezuela accepts being a guarantor of the peace process between Colombia and the ELN. We will do so with our best intentions, in the name of the Almighty, in pursuit of the total peace of Colombia”, Nicolas Maduro declared on September 13th. With this unusual enthusiasm, he reacted to the request made by Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, to act as mediator of the peace process with the ELN in Cuba. The process will resume after three years of interrupted negotiations, which had taken place from 2017 to 2019. 

In his electoral campaign, Petro committed to achieving “total peace”, a promise that entails conducting negotiations with groups engaged in irregular warfare and reaching  legal and political agreements, such as the one entered into by the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and the government of Juan Manuel Santos —in which Venezuela acted as guarantor as well.

What comes next is an exploratory meeting in Venezuelan territory. In it, the Colombian government and the ELN will set the grounds for the negotiation, topics to cover, locations and conditions of each party. Based on Maduro’s closeness with guerrilla groups, the question is if Venezuela is in the position to be a true grantor, if it will be a third party in the process, or moreover, if Maduro is taking advantage of this situation as an opportunity for legitimation (beyond his commitment with the pursuit of peace proposed by President Petro.)

Subsequently, the Venezuelan opposition reacted skeptically to the announcement. For instance, representative Juan Carlos Palencia, a member of the Borders Commission of the National Assembly (2020) for the Accion Democratica party, thinks that his country should not act as a guarantor but as a party. “It has to be part of the negotiation, because the ELN is a binational guerrilla. We want to bring peace to the border and Venezuela needs to have a process with the guerrilla here. It would not make sense to achieve peace in Colombia while irregular groups remain operational in our own territory,” he expressed.

Cautionary reactions have also been issued at international level. For example, some US senators have voiced their concerns. Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, Republican, tweeted “a terrorist has asked a terrorists’ accomplice to guarantee a peace process with terrorists in a country that sponsors terrorism.” But the issue is not limited to the right. Senator Robert (Bob) Menendez, Democrat, considers that the only thing that Maduro can guarantee is “a refuge for the ELN to engage in terrorism against the country,” and he wonders how his participation may end up being positive for Colombia.

The connections of the Venezuelan government with guerrillas (both the ELN and the FARC) have been evident since Hugo Chavez rose to power 1999. Top government officials have publicly expressed support for these groups, which engage in criminal activities along the 2,219 kilometers of the border with Colombia.

For instance, on January 11th, 2008, while addressing the National Assembly, Hugo Chavez asked Latin American and European rulers to remove the Colombian guerrillas (ELN and FARC) from the list of designated terrorist groups, arguing that both had a political project that had garnered the “respect” of the Venezuelan government. He also requested Colombia to acknowledge them as “insurgent forces” and not as “terrorist groups.”

Chavez described the death of guerrilla leader Raul Reyes (in an air raid in Ecuador in 2008) as a “coward murder”. He mobilized war tanks to the border and he recalled the ambassador in Colombia for consultations. His successor, Nicolas Maduro carried on with these interventions in favor of guerrillas. In July 2019, he stated “the FARC are welcome in Venezuela whenever they want,” extending an invitation to Jesus Santrich and Ivan Marquez —the guerrilla leaders who rejected the peace process. 

In its Newsletter 25, Fundacion Redes stated that the ELN is based in more than eighteen states of Venezuela: Tachira, Apure, Zulia, Merida, Trujillo, Barinas, Lara, Falcon, Carabobo, Portuguesa, Aragua, Guarico, Bolivar, Monagas, Anzoategui, Delta Amacuro, Caracas and Yaracuy. It also identified ten guerrilla fronts: Juan Velasco Porras, de Guerra Nororiental, Luis Enrique Leon Guerra, Gustavo Villamizar, Parmenio Cuellar, Alirio Buitrago, Camilo Cienfuegos, Domingo Lain Saenz and Camilo Torres. All of which act without a great deal of control by the National Bolivarian Armed Forces. 

#21Nov Fernando Andrade, candidato a la gobernación de Táchira por la #MUD, manifestó que los testigos fueron amenazados por grupos irregulares, que dicen ser del #ELN, y no permitieron la instalación de los mismos .#TVV #TVVNoticias

Reporte @Luzdarydepablos pic.twitter.com/FhikOsSBHa

— TVV Noticias (@TVVnoticias) November 21, 2021

The Risk of Tolerating Armed Groups  

Reports by human rights organizations have warned that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces act in collusion with the ELN, especially in areas near the border with Colombia. Former HRW Americas Division Director, Jose Miguel Vivanco, said in 2019 that “groups act with almost total impunity on both sides of the border, and especially in Venezuela, they sometimes act in collusion with members of local law enforcement agencies and authorities.”

In 2022, Tamara Taraciuk Broner, HRW acting Americas director, urged the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to investigate the liability of the Venezuelan law enforcement agencies in actions conducted by the guerrilla. She alleged that “armed groups are committing brutal abuses against civilians in the border between Colombia and Venezuela, oftentimes with the complicity of Venezuelan law enforcement agencies.”

According to Crisis Group, the ELN has been participating in illegal gold mining in Venezuela since 2017 with the consent of law enforcement. It adds that insurgents assumed control of Wayuu indigenous populations on the Venezuelan side of the border.

Te insurgent group acts in the orinoco Mining Arc, located in the state of Bolivar, without the intervention of the Venezuelan government. In the meantime, in the state of Amazonas, the digital outlet Armando.info revealed audios recorded by the ​​Piaroa people in which representatives of the dissident groups of the FARC and ELN told them they would be settling in the territory with the government’s permission. The objective was to “help security at national, territorial and border level; and to support political and social work in favor of the government’s parties, the PSUV in particular.” 

The ELN is the main aggressor in Tachira, according to the most recent report of the Monitor de Victimas NGO. 24.6% of the homicides that occurred in 2021 are attributed to that guerrilla group. Between March and December of that year, the organization recorded 77 homicides, 19 of which were allegedly conducted by the insurgent group. Victims’ families know who they are because they keep these municipalities and localities under control .

Particular Interests

Ronna Risquez, editorial coordinator at Monitor de Victimas and a member of the  #CONNECTASHub believes that the Venezuelan government should not act as a neutral mediator, but as “a party” of the process. This doesn’t mean that it’s bound to fail or that it is bound to be successful. Yet, it should be understood that there are three negotiating parties instead of two,” she said. Former representative of the National Assembly and President of Fundacion El Amparo, Walter Marquez, agrees with her. He thinks it is necessary “for the planning stage not to be a pretext of Maduro’s government to continue covering up for these criminal groups,” because “members of the ELN, common criminals and dissident groups of Colombian irregular groups are committing crimes in Venezuela.”

According to Clara Ramirez, Director of documentation and human rights of Fundaredes, Venezuela can’t be impartial in the peace process with the ELN; Maduro hasn’t even accepted their presence in the territory. And he keeps ignoring it despite the fact that the group is responsible for crimes such as homicides, smuggling, drug and human trafficking, operating clandestine airstrips, exploiting illegal mining, recruiting young people, among others. 

Fundacion Redes has denounced that boxes of the CLAP were delivered by the ELN in municipalities near the border. Photo Fundaredes

Regardless of the outcome of the process, Karim Vera, representative of the National Assembly (2015) for the border and member of the Primero Justicia party, is convinced that Maduro is bound to be the only winner. In fact, these irregular groups are in his territory with the aim to intimidate people who dissent while he attains legitimacy, because Colombia acknowledges him as President of Venezuela. “There are no guarantees to protect citizens, to uphold both nations’ security. The fact is that this is a Chavista president who will always protect irregular groups because they come in handy to intimidate, exercise control and murder”, she says.

From this perspective, this process is Maduro’s lucky break. Yet, for Gustavo Petro, there are no guarantees for a successful negotiation. The Venezuelan ruler’s background generates uncertainty in terms of his contribution to the 60-year-old conflict between Colombia and the ELN guerrilla group.