Colombia’s President-elect Gustavo Petro proposed on July 5 a bilateral ceasefire between the government’s security forces and the left-wing guerrillas – especially the National Liberation Army (known by the Spanish acronym ELN) – that have been active in the South American country since the 1960s.

That seems to be an important step in the peace process launched in 2012 by former President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as FARC), tainted over the years by a series of setbacks which impeded its full implementation. The Church has been playing a vital role in the negotiations and is hopeful that solution may be reached. 

The new phase in the dialogue began with Petro himself. After a highly polarized presidential campaign that divided the country, then Senator Petro had on June 19 a narrow win over his populist opponent, Rodolfo Hernández. 

Colombia’s first left-wing president in history, Petro obtained 50.44 percent of the votes, a clear sign that Colombians still have a long way to go if they want to attain unity. But that is what the Colombian episcopate hopes from the different social groups now.

An economist who held several public offices since the 1980s, in his younger days Petro was a member of the nationalist urban guerrilla April 19 Movement (M-19), a group created in the 1970s that took part in the Colombian conflict between leftist guerrilla groups, rightist paramilitary forces, and the national army. He was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Military in 1985. 

M-19 signed a peace agreement with the government in 1990 and became a regular political party. Petro also moderated his views over the years, something that he stressed during the presidential campaign. But most conservative Colombians kept their suspicions, fearing that he could implement a Venezuelan-like regime or strengthen the remaining leftist guerrillas.  

During the campaign, Petro stressed many times that he is an enthusiast of the Liberation Theology movement and made references to God on different occasions – including in his social media message when he was declared victorious.

“That was not decisive in his election. But his opponents could not keep portraying Petro as a church-persecutor communist,” affirmed Carlos Enrique Angarita, a Theology professor at the Pontifical Xavierian University, in Bogotá.

Although figures like Father Camillo Torres led guerrilla groups decades ago, Catholics and leftist activists have traditionally had a negative relationship in Colombia. But both Petro and the Church seem to be willing to turn the page and work together for peace.

“During his campaign Petro visited the pope and told him that he would like the Church to play a leading role in the consolidation of peace. He said the same when he met Colombia’s bishops,” Angarita described.

A group of bishops of the Pacific coast, especially Archbishop Darío Monsalve of Cali, has been openly criticizing President Iván Duque’s administration over the past few years for its failure to end violence in Colombia.

“The war is alive in that region. The local Church has been vocal in denouncing its consequences, including the persecution of community leaders and even of Catholic activists,” he added.

Monsignor Hector Henao, the bishops’ conference’s delegate for the relations between the Church and the State, told the Catholic Herald that the episcopate is waiting to have more information on Petro’s strategy for peace – and hopes to work on it along with the government.

“His platform includes the full implementation of the peace deals and the negotiation with groups that are still in illegality. We also want a global solution for those issues,” he affirmed.

A longtime peace negotiator in Colombia, Henao added that some sections of society still await for a solution to another issue. Starting in April of 2021, a series of demonstrations swept the country for several months. Protestors demanded the suspension of economic reforms considered to be negative for the poor, access to higher education, and the end of violence in Colombia.

Several of the movement’s leaders, most of them very young, were arrested and accused of terrorist acts. “Nobody has been sentenced yet, so many social movements have been asking their release. Petro has supported such demand,” Henao explained. The full implementation of the peace deals was part of the demonstrators’ demands.

The peace negotiations will need not only a national effort but also local initiatives, said Angarita, and the Church is the only Colombian institution that is present in every district of the nation.

Petro’s election coincided with the last phase of the work of the National Commission of Truth, established in 2018 as part of the agreement between the government and the FARC to carry out a deep investigation on the war in Colombia since the 1960s. On June 28, it presented its final report. The president elect attended the ceremony.

Led by Father Francisco de Roux, S.J., the commission informed that at least 450,000 people died between 1985 and 2016 as a result of the conflict (the number may reach up to 800,000) and that 80 percent of them were civilians with no participation in combat. More than 121,000 people went missing, 50,000 were abducted and 8 million were displaced. 

The commission will complete its mandate in August – new chapters of the report will be released till there, including recommendations on how to build sustainable peace.

Pope Francis sent a message that was read during the event, calling Colombians to reconciliation and to be “artisans of peace.” The role played by the church during the elections was a relevant attempt to keep following such path, said Henao.

“The bishops’ conference’s president talked with both candidates before the second round and invited the whole society to vote, saying that both contestants had the goal of working for the country,” he recalled. “It was an important step towards the reconciliation of the divided. It was a sign from the church that we can make progress without stigmatizing the different,” he argued.

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