2001                  

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January 1-20 Month for positions from each side. Negotiations still frozen in the eve of another governmental extension of the DMZ. Current until January 30. Farc- Ep insisted on new conditions: creating a special commission to fight the paramilitary; extended list of guerrilleros to be exchanged in the now called humanitarian exchange of prisoners from both sides; and, an indefinite extension of the DMZ as a condition for any kind of continuation of the dialogues. Government insisted on renewal of dialogues to extend the DMZ; stop attacks against civilians, stop kidnapping, and willingness to advance on the issues. Few advances also with the ELN, since the South Bolivar populations are against the DMZ in Cantagallo and San Pablo. The populations are afraid of the guerrilla taking control of the area and losing all they have, including their lives. The ELN, the government negotiators and the countries facilitating the process –Cuba, Spain, Switzerland, France- insisted in this regions and the Asocipaz and No al Despeje committees are still very reluctand. 

January 23 - 27: Pastrana´s trip to France and Sweden tried to explain the situation and asked Europe for its support. Europe gave support to Colombia as long as the peace process continued. Pastrana´s visit to Europe was cut short due to the difficulties that Camilo Gómez had in trying to persuade Marulanda to go back to the negotiating table. 

January 25: The government reached an agreement with the ELN with 89 conditions for a DMZ. Now this agreement is being discussed with Asocipaz and No al Despeje. The meetings were supposed to be in Bucaramanga, until the actors involved prefered to meet in a neutral place, an embassy in Colombia or another country. The European Union set a group to explore possibilities of financing social programs in the South Bolivar to convince the people to accept the DMZ. The EU is conditioning any cooperation to this DMZ.

January 31: at 7:30 am President Pastrana, after consultations with major political forces and members of the cabinet, announced the nation that the extension of the DMZ will only be until Sunday February 4, considering the negative attitude of Marulanda´s group to sit and discuss issues and advance in the process with concrete results. Pastrana asked Marulanda to have a meeting before Sunday to set a new round of talks, new conditions that include meetings with the European Union, release of soldiers and guerrilleros, humanitarian law commitments and an express will to dialogue and commit with the talks and produce short-term results towards peace. Farc-Ep, although reluctant to negotiate during 2000, froze the process and walked away from the negotiation in November 14, 2000. Since then, the Peace High Commissioner, Camilo Gómez, tried to set new scenarios trying to convince Farc-Ep to renew the talks. Nothing worked out so far.

February 8-9: President Pastrana extended the DMZ from January 30 until February 4, to force Tirofijo to have a meeting with him and take decisions about the process. Tirofijo accepted the invitation and the meeting started February 8 and continued February 9.

Pastrana travelled to El Caguán and discussed for two days with Marulanda about the issues and problems that have kept both parties apart. He came out with an agreement that gave a new air to the peace process. New committees were formed: 1. To address paramilitary issues together with the ways to reduce the conflict. (This Committee is integrated by so-called national leaders) 2. To study all those issues and problems that delay the negotiations and the process. 3. To evaluate the DMZ purposes and this commission will brief the public opinion. Basic points in “Los Pozos” agreement signed by Marulanda and Pastrana: will to continue in the process; search for national reconciliation; discuss mechanisms to fight the paramilitary; renewal of dialogue- february 14 and discussion of thematic issues, including a cease-fire and cease of hostilities; Humanitarian agreement to release soldiers, police and guerrillas; meeting with the international community – March 8 -; invitation to all political forces to meet in Los Pozos to give a new air to the process; illicit crop manual eradication with the communities´ approval; negotiation sessions three times a week.    

February 1-12: The meetings between the Asocipaz and No al Despeje delegates with COCE (ELN- Central Command) did not take place and the region remained against the DMZ. Camilo Gómez declarations upset the communities when he called them "paras", when before they were called “guerrilleros” when the ELN had control over the zone. Neither one is true. The general feeling is that another DMZ in the middle of the conflict, with no cease-fire and cease of hostilities, end of kidnapping nationally and end of infrastructure attacks nationally is a big mistake. It is surprising the European Union interest to create a DMZ in Colombia in exchange of economic and social cooperation programs. Its involvement is conditioned to this DMZ.

February 14: Meetings began again and efforts to discuss the thematic agenda were made. Committees´ members to be announced soon. Los Pozos agreement kept both parties in the negotiation, probably because of the political cost to both sides to walk out of the talks.

February 15: New peace commissioner for the ELN Jorge Mario Eastman, Pastrana´s former private secretary. Both Eastman and Camilo Gómez tried to put an end to the rode blockades, without success. Pastrana flew to the Magdalena Medio and tried to restore dialogue with the communities. Decisions were still pending, but the government insisted on a DMZ while the communities tried to explain why they were opposing this measure.   

February 26: The road blockade finished and the government committed once more to discuss with the community the issue of establishing another DMZ for the ELN. New meetings are expected to resume soon.

February 27: Pastrana in Washington to meet with President George W. Bush. The main interest is the ATPA agreements apart from the peace process. European ambassadors and the Peace Commissioner have met in El Caguán with Farc-Ep representatives and Marulanda to organize the March 8 meeting with the international community to talk about the process. Some presidential candidates and political movements met with Marulanda in El Caguán to discuss different issues concerning the agenda.

March 8: Meeting in El Caguán with the European Union ambassadors, UN representatives, Latin American ambassadors and Vatican representatives. Main topics: humanitarian law, illicit crops, and process facilitation. Farc-Ep accepted facilitation by 8 countries that will meet with the Negotiators in El Caguán every two months. The rest of the international community that participated in this meeting will visit El Caguán every six months. The international community will be able to present proposals to the Negotiators. This is a great development in the process with Farc-Ep considering that this group has been very reluctant at accepting any kind of international presence, issue that kept the negotiation in the freezer for several months in 1999 and 2000. The facilitators are: Sweden, Norway, Spain, France, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and Canada. Countries that were present with their Ambassadors: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela, the Vatican. UN: UNSG Special Representative, Jan Egeland, UNDP Director, and UN Latin American and Caribbean Political Director. European Commission Director, Cándido Rodríguez. 

March 20: The group of facilitators´ Ambassadors travelled again to El Caguán, hoping to discuss humanitarian and human right issues and illicit crops. The group is larger now: Canada, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela. (Italy and Switzerland being new members). 

March 21: New meetings with the South Bolivar community still pending. The farmers, Asocipaz and No al Despeje are willing to meet with Gabino and COCE members to discuss the DMZ issue. The government is pressured, on one side, by the European Countries to install a DMZ and on the other side, by the population who is against it. The lack of consensus about a new DMZ and the fact that the Paramilitary attacked the ELN headquarters in the South Bolivar have made nearly unthinkable a DMZ in this area. The President suggested other countries to have the National Convention, and the ELN refused. 

April 20: Capture of a Brazilian drug-lord known as “fernandihno” in the company of Farc guerrilleros, the “Negro Acacio” people in Vichada, Colombia. This had risen the issue, once more, of Farc involvement in the drug business as a means to finance the war and to exercise power in many Colombian regions. The war and zone control is a way to protect the illicit crops and the traffic business.  

April 25: During his trip to Scandinavia and Germany, Pastrana admitted his lack of ability to start a peace process with the ELN in the near future.

May 1-30: The government continued its effort to keeping the process alive. The public opinion criticized this administration, perceived as weak and with no strategy either for peace or for war. After the recent trip to the Nordic countries, the President is being “accused” of searching an undeserved international recognition that could grant him with the Peace Nobel Prize. The exchange issue is the only one of any importance for the guerrilla, and both parties have not been able to reach any agreement about the release of prisonners and soldiers. Several bilateral meetings have been held between the Farc secretariat and the international facilitators without governmental presence in the Caguán.

May 15: The government reached an agreement with the international facilitating commission to demilitarize the South Bolivar. This agreement was presented to the ELN, group that rejected it, because of its disagreement with international and national military verification in the DMZ. The population nation-wide and especially in the South Bolivar is against another DMZ. ELN announced that it was ready to wait until the next government to think of any peace negotiation, although it agreed to listen to the facilitating group new options and proposals to allow a peace process to start. Pastrana announced in CNN that he could be ready to travel to the “mountains” to meet the ELN leaders. No response from this group yet.

June 3: Humanitarian exchange signed. Around 15 guerrilleros and 40 soldiers could be released. 

June 5: A very ill Coronel Alvaro Acosta together with five more policemen were released at the Páramo de las Hermosas in the border between Tolima and Valle. 15 guerrilleros will be released in the coming days as well as 40 from the 409 soldiers in the hands of Farc-Ep. 

June 16-18: Soldiers and policemen have been released in small groups in different parts of the country. The first group will sum up around 40 and Farc-Ep have said to release unilaterally around 100 more in the coming days. One guerrillero preferred to remain in jail. Marulanda and the Secretariat received the guerrilleros in El Caguán. The EU press release welcomed the exchange and invited Farc to stop kidnapping soldiers, policemen and civilians and to release all the people that in Colombia are suffering the consequences of this crime. 

June 25: Farc continued the unilateral release of prisoners, completing up to 300 hundred in total. 42 soldiers and policemen remain in the mountains, and several are still disappeared from any list presented by Farc.

July 5: Government negotiators with Farc-Ep finished their participation in the process. Pastrana removed the negotiators and involved the Common Front for Peace and Against Violence that will be a sort of filter of proposals that the government will bring to the negotiating table. Juan Gabriel Uribe, Luis Guillermo Giraldo, Ramón de la Torre, Alfonso López and General ® Gonzalo Forero left the negotiating team. A new team of advisors and counsellors was integrated with cabinet members, but not as negotiators. Cease-fire and cease of hostilities proposals disclosed. Few points in common. The government proposal: end of all kidnapping, extorsion, attacks against civilians and state forces, release of all people that remain kidnapped with an international verification mechanism. All insurgent forces to be concentrated in one region, established by both parties, in other words, a demilitarized zone, with international verification and previously set rules to be respected by all parties. The cease-fire and cease of hostilities will be extended with the agreement of both parties. Farc-Ep proposal: Cease-fire is independent from cease of hostilities. Government has to fight the Autodefensas (paramilitary); fight against corruption; military personnel to be judged by ordinary judges; end of neoliberal policies such as privatization of state companies; manual illicit crop substitution; cease of extradition; license cancelation to media networks that present paramilitary news and points of view; accept more exchange of prisonners; stop all offensive attacks and activities against Farc; each force will remain where it is when the agreement is signed; a national verification commission that will inform the Negotiating Table the parties compliance with the Agreement; Cease of fire extension according with the results of the Agreement.

July 6: New meetings between Camilo Gómez and ELN commanders in Venezuela. No outcomes yet. 

August 5: Pastrana announced the breakdown of the dialogues with the ELN. The negotiations with Farc-EP are at a dead-end. The kidnapping of German citizens created new problems to be discussed outside the negotiation table itself. The European Union conditionned its suppor to the peace process, including maintaining Farc members visas, to the release of the victims. 3706 Colombians were kidnapped in 2001. Colin Powell´s agenda in his visit to Colombia in September 11 includes the demilitarized zone and the use that the guerrilla has given to it.

September 9: Mexico´s President, Vicente Fox, appeared as Bush consultant in the peace process. Mexico is one of the members of the facilitating commission established at the Los Pozos agreement in January 2001. El Espectador indicated that Pastrana played all his numbers in the peace process, and that he has lost since the beginning of the talks, giving all winning numbers to the Farc-Ep. Since the exclusion of all negotiators representing the government, the “Comision de Notables” has tried to fill the gap. Two governmental and two Farc delegates presented their inputs to the President and Peace Commissioner. Before the “Notables” report, one of the government delegates resigned, feeling that there was no way of going forward. Pastrana wanted to avoid any debate about the extension of the DMZ (El Caguán) and declared in early September that the extension was a given, because the alternative was having more war. The general public opinion (reflected in most printed and broadcasted media) rejected the extension of the zone with no rules in the middle of a high intensity armed conflict. 

September 11: Colombia condemned the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The global war against terrorism could create troubles for the guerrillas in Colombia. Farc-Secretariat issued a statement proposing a debate to define terrorism.

September 15: The Liberal Party chairman in the opposition, Luis Guillermo Vélez has, in numerous occasions, denounced a secret deal that Pastrana is supposed to have with Marulanda in the issue of the National Assembly to reform the Constitution. 

September 20: Farc indicated its decision to block political campaigning in El Caguán. Few days later, it blocked the march of the liberal party candidate, Horacio Serpa. The Europeans cancelled the meetings of the “group of friends” of the process, due to the kidnapping of three german nationals by Farc. 

September 23: The Senate approved a resolution condemning a new extension in the same conditions of the demilitarized zone. It is expected a more critical international opinion about El Caguán, in the middle of a process that has produced more war than peace expectations. The new war against terrorism will affect the Colombian armed groups, all considered in the State Departament list of terrorists –ELN, AUC and FARC, as “terrorist organizations with global reach”. 

September 27: The “Comisión de Notables” report recommended a National Assembly, a truce, the deposition of weapons, an international verification of the truce, and the ELN to be included in the negotiations to continue with the peace process. The report has produced debate, critic and suspision. 

September 28: Guerrilla abuses in the DMZ allowed for the government to enter the zone, according to political analists. 

September 29: Farc prevented the political candidate, Horacio Serpa, to reach El Caguán. This act and the assassination of the Attorney-General´s wife and former Minister of Culture, Consuelo Araújo, "La Cacica",  kidnapped and killed by the Farc´s 59 Front, put the public opinion against the extension, due in the following days. Public opinion in general, congress, entrepreneurial community, media, political candidates and parties questioned the zone as it is functioning right now. The zone has become a 42-sq-km without law and order from the State. It has no State rule and is open to guerrillas training, military actions and kidnapping camps, etc.

November 14: The lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld, expert in International Law, indicated at a Forum organized by Pax Christi to discuss how the European Union could contribute to eliminate the kidnapping and extorsion industry in Colombia, that the kidnappers could be judged an international tribunal.  

November 22: In a letter to Pastrana, Marulanda indicates that "Pastrana finished with the peace process in just one moment". during his trip to the United States. Marulanda asked the President to define the organization and if "Pastrana considered us terrorists, he should not negotiate with such people." This letter refered to the proposals (november 10) to enhance the fight agains "narcoterrorism" in Colombia, through the Plan Colombia. Pastrana replied to Marulanda indicating that the lack of Farc´s commitment with the San Francisco Agreement was the only thing that could jeopardize the dialogues, at this moment. In the meantime, Farc-Ep is mobilizing fronts, some from the DMZ to sorround Bogotá.  

November 23: Jan Egeland visited El Guayabal in the DMZ trying to persuade the Secretariat to resume the dialogues. Egeland declared that the peace process is still possible, since he saw will to continue from the Farc representatives. Later on, Egeland met with Camilo Gómez, who also manifested the government´s will to remain and advance in the process. Egeland will be replaced as Special Envoy of the UNSG, by James Lemoyne, next january 2002. Lemoyne has experience in peace processes in El Salvador, Guatemala, Northern Ireland

November 25: The government and the ELN signed in Cuba, the "Acuerdo Colombia/Colombia Agreement" to restore the contacts towards the initiation of dialogues. The ELN decided not to wait until the next administration to resume dialogues. The first point will be to discuss the cease-fire and of hostilities and to program working groups in foreign countries, to revitalize the National Convention, agreed with the civil society in Germany in the 1998 "Puerta del Cielo/Heaven´s Door Agreement". Information about more than 10.000 booby-traps planted by the ELN in the South Bolivar, endangering the peasants fields. The agreement has 7 points: 1. To start the dialogues with a transition agenda to last until the end of the present administration; 2. Promote meetings between the parties and the different civil society sectors; 3. Promote meetings between the parties and the presidential candidates to strengthen the peace dialogues as a State policy; 4. To organized conferences in foreign countries to initiate debate on specific issues and make concrete proposals in topics such as International Humanitarian Law, energy, and others to be decided upon later on; 5. Convene a "Meeting for Peace" with the civil society sectors and the international community to evaluate the difficulties of the dialogues between the government and the ELN; 6. Program working sessions between the parties spokepersons to discuss: cease-fire and cease of hostilities, ways and means to reduce the conflict; energy sector problems; and evalutation of the conferences and meetings, first round of talks is Dec. 12 in Havana, Cuba; 7. Establish a mechanism to study the regional peace initiatives.    

November 26: The ELN spokesperson, Ramiro Vargas, indicated that this group has not renounced to a DMZ, the national conference and that it would consider the issue of a cease-fire and cease of hostilities, proposed by the government. The presidential candidates indicated that results should be presented and negotiations should start in order to be able to evaluate the situation, since broken promises have happened in the past.

November 27: Marulanda sent another letter to President Pastrana, the Senate and House presidents, Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, State Counsel, Business Counsel and the Church proposing a meeting in January 15 (DMZ extension to be renewed January 20)to discuss the so-called forbidden issues. Marulanda wants to debate the Plan Colombia, the Development Plan, illicit crop eradication, reform of state institutions, international agreements in economic, political, judicial and military matters, including the extradition, the electoral calendar and the exchange of soldiers and policemen for guerrilleros. Marulanda wants to know what is negotiable with the State. 

November 30: The civil society facilitating commission for the process with the ELN considered the "Acuerdo para Colombia" signed by the ELN and the government last saturday, as a positive one, since it allows the process to continue. A concrete agenda will be discussed in Havana, in Dec.12-13. Mexico and Spain proposed a meeting in Barcelona, Dec. 11, between the candidates to discuss and assess the peace process. They are: Alvaro Uribe Velez, Horacio Serpa Uribe, Luis Eduardo Garzon and Noemi Sanin. Some candidates want to change the date, so nothing has been established yet. 

December 3: Asocipaz welcomed the Cuba agreement with the ELN. It considered it convenient to negotiate in a foreign country and continue its opposition against a new DMZ. Celso Martinez, the spokesperson, stated that this is a last opportunity for the ELN to prove that it can live in peace with the community and the nation. No official answer yet about the powers summit in El Caguan next January 15, 2002. 

December 5-31: No progress to resume dialogues. Parties agreed to reconvene January 4 and 5, 2002 to try to settle difficulties in order to continue in the peace process. The ELN declared a holiday truce and agreed to meet with government representatives in Havana, Cuba, January 10, 2002.

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