Conflict information

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

1989:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1990:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1991:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1992:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1993:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1994:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1995:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1996:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


1997:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Costa Rica & Mexico
	Comment on third party involvement: On 19 June the government and the FARC engaged in a secret preliminary meeting held in Costa Rica. Representatives from both sides met again in Mexico City on 26 August. No details of the talks were released.


1998:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Catholic Church, the Red Cross
	Comment on third party involvement: Talks between the government and FARC on 9 July, in which they agreed to set up a demilitarized zone for the purpose of peace talks, were set up by the Red Cross and appeared to have taken place in eastern Meta province, a traditional FARC stronghold. "The Palace of Viana Pre-Agreement in Madrid”, in which the ELN agreed to hold preliminary peace talks on 5-7 June, was signed between ELN and the government in Spain in on 9 February. Under the auspices of the German government, a meeting was held between ELN, the Colombian government and Catholic Church representatives. in Mainz, Germany in late June. They agreed on core points of a programme aimed at securing peace in the country In late August a meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland between ELN, the Colombian Government and Catholic, brokered by the Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross. Talks focused on much needed efforts to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in Colombia and better protect its beleaguered civilian population from political bloodletting. Spain served as a guarantor of peace talks in October, in the jungle province of Antioquia, between 25 men representing the Colombian government, civil society, and ELN. The meeting studied an agenda for the National Convention for peace.


1999:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Venezuela, Cuba
	Comment on third party involvement: Talks were held in Caracas, Venezuela in February about mapping out an agenda for peace. ELN posed, as a precondition for further talks, that the government created a demilitarized zone in the north of Colombia. When the government announced unwilling to do so, the ELN called off further peace talks. In talks, hosted in Cuba in November, ELN and the government agreed to continue talks in the beginning of 2000.


2000:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Cuba, Venezuela, Swizerland, Costa Rica, UN
	Comment on third party involvement: On 3-14 February a joint group of seven FARC guerrillas and five Colombian government peace negotiators, including the president of congress, visited Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Vatican, Switzerland, Spain and France to explain Colombia's violence and be briefed on the workings of advanced democracy and welfare states. The three-week European tour was designed to seek aid to end decades of civil conflict and build confidence in peace talks. On 19 June representatives of the government and FARC met in Caracas for secret talks about cease fire in search of peace. Venezuela's foreign minister acted as a facilitator of the talks. On 30 November United Nations special envoy to Colombia Jan Egeland met with both President Pastrana and the FARC, separately, and urged them to return to the negotiating table. After the meeting Pastrana decided to extend the demilitarized zone for negotiations with FARC until 31 January 2001. On 5 February the Colombian government and ELN guerrillas met in Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia and agreed on the rules for future peace talks. In the nine-point memorandum the ELN committed itself to respect the civil, judicial and religious authorities, while the government would pull back army and police forces stationed in negotiations zone, which were yet to be defined. On 3 March the Colombian government and ELN agreed to create a neutral zone in northern Colombia (southern Bolivar province) that would permit the rebel group to resume a peace process. The agreement was reached during talks in Havana between Colombia's ambassador to Cuba, Julio Londoño Paredes and ELN spokesman Pablo Beltran. On 24-25 July representatives of Colombia's government, civil society and ELN held a two-day meeting in Geneva organized by the Swiss government. Talks aimed at setting up a ceasefire that would pave the way for definitive peace negotiations. They also discussed the release of hostages. After talks ELN freed a group of persons, who they had held hostage for 16 months. On 16-18 October a three day international conference on peace in Colombia, organized by the NGO “Peace Colombia” was held in Costa Rica. Representatives of the Colombian government, ELN and Colombian civil society organizations (NGOs) participated (FARC decided not to participate). A total of 300 persons were present of which observers from 37 different countries. Human rights issues, the anti-drug initiative Plan Colombia, and a ceasefire between guerrilla groups and the army were discussed but no consensus was reached on any of the issues. The three day peace summit in Costa Rica led to the "Declaration of San Jose Costa Rica and the Declaration of the National Liberation Army (ELN) at the `International Meeting on Peace, Human Rights and International Humanitarian Rights in Colombia'": The Colombian government met with ELN in Cuba on 22 December and discussed the release of prisoners. ELN decided to release 42 prisoners as a gesture of peace.


2001:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Canada, Cuba, Spain, France, Norway, Sweden, Venezuela, Switzerland, EU, UN
	Comment on third party involvement: On 22 February representatives of the Colombian government, FARC guerrillas and diplomats from eight countries met in the neutral zone San Vicente del Caugan in southern Colombia to set up a March 8 meeting with delegates of 27 countries, who would discuss the peace process. The meeting was attended by diplomats from Canada, Cuba, Spain, France, Norway, Sweden and Venezuela, several of the so-called "Facilitating Countries," as agreed on Feb. 9 at a meeting between President Andres Pastrana and top FARC leader Manuel "Tirofijo" Marulanda Velez. The parties explored "forms of cooperation in the peace process" and issues to be included in the agenda of the March 8 meeting. Ambassadors from 26 nations and delegates from the European Commission and the United Nations opened historic peace talks on March 8 with leaders of FARC and Gov. peace commissioner, in the "neutral zone" in southern Colombia, hoping to encourage a settlement to their long-standing armed conflict. This was the first-time participation by foreign governments in talks between the Colombian government and FARC. The Gov. and FARC agreed on the formation of two commissions formed by representatives of 26 nations. The delegates of 10 nations - Canada, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela - will form the so-called "facilitating commission." The other "friendly nations and international bodies commission" will be formed by delegates of the 10 nations and Germany, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Britain, the Vatican, as well as the United Nations and the European Union (EU). Government negotiator Luis Fernando Criales said that the facilitating commission, as well as the friendly nations panel, would meet biannually to discuss ways of moving the peace process forward. Sweden hosted informal peace talks on 23-25 April between the Colombian government (President Andres Pastrana's chief peace negotiator) and FARC leaders. Colombia's government officials and leaders of ELN met with international mediators in Havana on January 15, but a peace accord anticipated by Colombian media proved to be elusive. Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Camilo Gomez and ELN Nicolas Rodriguez informed envoys of Cuba, Switzerland, France, Norway and Spain of their efforts toward peace. Colombian President Andres Pastrana left for Europe January 19 to discuss his country's peace process and ways to make his anti-drug campaign more effective. The official part of Pastrana's tour begun in France, January 22, which together with Cuba, Spain, Norway and Switzerland, forms a group of foreign mediators trying to facilitate a peace deal between Bogota and the ELN. The EU had also asked FARC to join the talks. However, Pastrana had to cut short his European visit in an apparent effort to help salvage negotiations back home. In talks on 6 March on a planned "demilitarized" zone in the northern state of Bolivar, representatives of the government and ELN were joined by foreign delegates. Representatives of the governments of Canada, Germany, Japan, Portugal and Switzerland were present. Discussion focused on the planned role for an international commission in verifying that government and guerrillas keep agreements on the day-to-day operation of the zone. The Colombian government agreed on March 13 to the formation of a committee composed of diplomatic negotiators and civilians to seek a way to get the ELN guerrillas to rejoin peace talks, which they broke off three days earlier. The committee was set up after a lengthy meeting of the high commissioner for peace, Camilo Gomez, with the group of five "friendly countries" who have assumed an interest in the talks - Cuba, Spain, France, Norway and Switzerland - and the so-called Facilitating Commission. The meeting took place in the Casa de Nariño, the seat of the Executive Branch in Bogota, shortly after delegates from those two negotiating bodies returned from a meeting in the country's northern jungle with the Central Command of the ELN. On 1 April the Colombia's top peace negotiator met with rebels of ELN in an effort to restart peace talks frozen last month after a military offensive in northern Colombia. The meeting in a rural area of the northern Bolivar province was announced a day after United Nations officials met with leaders of ELN, to discuss the creation of a demilitarized zone in northern Colombia as a venue for peace negotiations with the government. The Colombian government and ELN reached an agreement in Cuba on November 24 to formally resume peace talks, including cease-fire negotiations set for December 12. Representatives from the Colombian government and ELN met in Cuba deliberating on a signed agreement to formally resume peace talks. They agreed to launch discussions in January on a cease-fire in a breakthrough the two sides said renews hopes for a peace accord. The "Havana Declaration" was agreed on between the government and ELN in Cuba on December 15. It was a calender for further peace talks running from January to June 2002 including, among others, issues such as: human rights, democracy, agrarian problems, drug-trafficking, substitution of drug crops, issues related to natural resources, economy and social problems. On 22 December the Colombia's government reopened formal peace negotiations with ELN, following a breakthrough at meetings in Havana. The US authorities announced on 5 October, in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the USA, a revised list of the 28 most dangerous terrorist organisations in the world, which included both FARC and ELN.


2002:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Cuba, UN, the Catholic Church
	Comment on third party involvement: Present in the signing of the los Pozos Accord on 20 January were Kofi Annan and the Catholic Church. The Colombian government under President Pastrana and FARC agreed that the international community should accompany the peace processes as permanent observers. However, later on the same year after the election of the president Uribe, FARC announced it didn't want international presence in the peace process. They accused the UN and the OAS of being agents of the US and disapproved of President Uribe's announcement that the UN would mediate in the Colombian conflict – without consulting them first. Peace talks in Havana, Cuba 29-31 January, The objective of the peace summit was to establish an agenda for further peace talks. ELN has, in discussions with the government, agreed to retain its weapons and neither localize nor demobilize its forces during the truce which will last for six months, briefly overlapping with the term of the new president. During the truce, ELN would engage in new activities to find political solutions to the conflict. In March and April the government and ELN met again in Cuba to discuss possibilities of truce. ELN rebels were suspicious of UN mediation of the war due to impartiality.


2003:
	Third party involvement: No information for the searched year.


2004:
	Third party involvement: No
	Name of third party/parties: Mexico
	Comment on third party involvement: Attempt to talks were made between the government and ELN. Mexico's president Vicente Fox was enlisted as 'guarantor' of renewed peace negotiations with ELN. ELN's spokesman Fransisco Galán was freed from prison for the day, on 4 June, to discuss possible peace talks and the next step would be to draft an agenda for direct dialogue.


2005:
	Third party involvement: Yes
	Name of third party/parties: Cuba, Norway, Spain and Swizerland
	Comment on third party involvement: Peace talks opened in Havanna, Cuba on 16 December and lasted until 20 December. The talks were led by Colombian peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo and Antonio Garcia, military chief of ELN, and observed by representatives from Cuba, Norway, Spain and Swizerland. The peace agenda was discussed. The talks ended with an agreement to have a new round of talks on Cuba in January 2006. Building the agenda for the negotiation will be one of the basic aspects to be considered at that meeting.

Basic Search

Detailed Information - Whole Conflict