The decision, announced from San Carlos Palace, the new seat of the Colombian presidency, underscores the new administration’s shift away from former President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” policy and signals closer cooperation with the United States on extradition, drug trafficking and transnational crime.

De la Espriella said the five were individuals “whose extraditions had already been approved by the national government in 2025, but whose surrender remained suspended because of their participation as representatives in different processes, negotiations or dialogue initiatives conducted by the previous government.”

“From day one, I was clear: Peace cannot be a refuge for criminals or a mechanism for impunity,” he later wrote on X. “In 16 days in office, I have signed more than 30 extraditions, and I will continue to do so with absolute determination.”

Three in custody, two at large

The decision includes Willington Henao Gutiérrez, alias “El Mocho Olmedo,” considered the second-in-command of Front 33 of the FARC dissident groups; Carmen Evelio Castillo Carrillo, alias “Muñeca,” identified as a leader of Los Pachencas, also known as the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada; and Geovanni Andrés Rojas, alias “Araña,” who served as a negotiating representative for Comandos de la Frontera, another FARC dissident group.

All three are in Colombian custody.

The order also covers Gabriel Yepes Mejía, alias “H.H.,” considered the leader of Comuneros del Sur, an ELN dissident group, and Freddy Castillo Carrillo, alias “Pinocho,” identified as the top leader of Los Pachencas and the brother of “Muñeca.” Both remain at large.

“Those two criminals are not in the hands of justice, but we are going to find them,” De la Espriella said.

According to the president, US authorities are seeking the five Colombians on charges that, depending on the individual case, are related to drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy, money laundering, weapons offenses and narcoterrorism.

De la Espriella said his administration reviewed the cases with the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, which he also said would be renamed, and concluded there were insufficient grounds to keep the extraditions suspended.

“After reviewing each case with the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, we found no verified contributions or concrete results by these individuals toward achieving peace. Quite the opposite: They have continued committing crimes, mocking the justice system and Colombian society,” he said.

A break with the ‘Total Peace’ policy

The announcement also marks a break with the Petro administration’s strategy of negotiating with armed and criminal organizations.

“The so-called Total Peace failed in its fundamental purpose because it opened spaces and granted benefits to members of criminal organizations without, in cases such as those before us today, demonstrating verified contributions or concrete results toward achieving peace,” De la Espriella said.

The president said his administration would replace what he called a policy of “false peace” with an approach centered on security, the rule of law and state authority, under which dialogue processes cannot be used to evade justice.

“Anyone who wants to transition to legality will have to demonstrate it through concrete and verifiable actions, and under this government there is no other way to do so than by submitting to justice,” he added.

De la Espriella warned that those who remain involved in drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime would face “the full legitimate force of the state.” Those seeking to abandon violence, he added, must do so within the framework of the Constitution and the law and by submitting to justice.

“To the criminals, I say directly, clearly and unequivocally that there will be no hiding place, privilege, negotiating table or legal device that puts them above the law and allows them to evade the determined action of justice,” he said.

A signal of cooperation with the United States

The extraditions also send a message to the United States and other international partners as Colombia’s new administration seeks to strengthen cooperation against drug trafficking and transnational crime.

De la Espriella has said security and the rule of law will be priorities for his administration and that Colombia will maintain international cooperation on extradition and efforts to combat criminal organizations.

The move comes just 16 days into his administration and follows more than 30 extradition orders that De la Espriella says he has signed since taking office.

The announcement further highlights a key difference between the security policies of De la Espriella and Petro: While the previous administration used the suspension of some extraditions as a tool in negotiations with armed and criminal groups, the new government says such benefits should remain in place only when there is concrete and verifiable progress toward peace.

The bilateral ceasefire, in effect for the past year, ended after the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) rejected government offers to discuss a renewal.

The agreement was plagued by continued violence and hostilities, such as armed strikes and kidnappings, with both sides accusing each other of not upholding their end of the bargain.

“Just extending the ceasefire isn’t enough if it doesn’t come with new steps to protect civilians from attacks, hostilities, kidnappings, and threats,” said Otty Patiño, Colombian High Peace Commissioner.

Meanwhile, the ELN has accused the government of not negotiating in good faith.

“What’s the point of urging the ELN to sign new agreements if the previous ones haven’t been upheld?” asked the group’s commander, Eliecer Erlinto Chamorro, alias “Antonio Garcia,” in a statement released on July 26.

SEE ALSO: From Total to Partial Peace: Colombia’s Talks With Crime Groups Fragment

The negotiations between the ELN and the government had advanced further than any other talks held under President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace (Paz Total) plan, which has sought demobilization agreements with criminal and armed groups across Colombia.

But the expiration of the ceasefire adds to a series of recent setbacks, including the ELN’s refusal to stop kidnappings and deepening internal divisions, and could lead the guerrillas to abandon the negotiating table completely.

Ceasefire Violations

While the ceasefire agreement primarily prohibits offensive military operations between the parties, it also includes other conditions, such as banning the ELN from “taking hostages,” widely understood to mean kidnapping.

The ELN has violated the agreement at least 39 times over the past year, according to the Colombian think tank, the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (Centro de Recursos para el Análisis de Conflictos – CERAC). These violations include five deaths, three injuries, and at least 52 kidnappings.

One of the most notable incidents occurred less than three months after the ceasefire took effect, in October 2023, when ELN members kidnapped the parents of Colombian football star Luis Díaz. After international attention pushed the group to release them, the ELN announced that it would cease kidnappings for ransom — a key part of their criminal operations.

Despite the ELN’s violations, negotiators agreed to extend the ceasefire on February 5 for another six months.

SEE ALSO: What Is Behind Increased Violence in Colombia?

But internal divisions on the ELN side soon became apparent, leading to larger problems for the negotiations.

On February 20, the ELN delegation declared a crisis in the peace negotiations, angered over the government’s “regional dialogue” with the Comuneros del Sur, a dissident ELN faction in Nariño that had started parallel negotiations with the government without the consent of the guerrilla group’s top leaders.

Over the next few months, the ELN temporarily suspended its participation in the talks and reneged on its promise to cease kidnappings, citing the government’s “lack of will” in establishing a donor fund to provide alternative financing, which the group claimed left them reliant on kidnapping. The government, however, argued that the fund could not be established while negotiations were stalled, creating a catch-22 situation.

Willingness for Peace

For weeks leading up to August 3, the government’s negotiation team had warned that time was running out to renew the ceasefire with the ELN, and continuously asked the guerrilla group to resume the peace talks.

At the same time, key officials were critical of the ELN’s willingness to negotiate, especially on the issue of kidnapping, an issue that has derailed negotiations in the past. Patiño stressed that the Colombian government would not sign agreements with the ELN if the group continued the practice.

The government has also questioned the group’s desire for peace.

“After years of dialogue, the ELN still has not answered whether it is willing to transition to peace or if, on the contrary, it sees this process as an opportunity to strengthen themselves militarily,” said the press release.

Some experts agree that the ELN seems to have taken advantage of the negotiations with no intention of ever laying down arms. The group advanced negotiation items that benefited its political cause, without moving forward on demobilization, Jorge Mantilla, a political scientist who studies Colombia’s armed conflict and security, told InSight Crime.

“The ELN has been aiming to buy time from the very start of the negotiations,” Mantilla said

What Does This Mean for the ELN?

The end of the ceasefire between the Colombian government and the ELN has dealt a potentially mortal blow to an already fragile negotiation.

As the ELN has refused to continue negotiations with the government, the process with the group’s dissident Comuneros del Sur Front has moved forward. So far, this is the only ELN front to have split from the Central Command.

If the parallel peace talks succeed, it could encourage other factions to split from the ELN and seek peace with the government, especially among fronts under pressure from belligerent rivals.

The main concern is the Western War Front (Frente de Guerra Occidental – FGOC) in Chocó, which has been fighting a losing battle with the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC) since 2018 for control over drug trafficking routes and illegal mining. In this area, the lapse of the ceasefire and an eventual return to military operations against the ELN could push the FGOC to the same decision as the Comuneros del Sur.

In other areas, however, the ELN has taken advantage of the ceasefire to solidify its control. The ELN continues to be a dominant criminal group along large stretches of the Colombia-Venezuela border, increasing its control over rural communities. The lapse of the ceasefire could lead to increased violence in these areas as the group retaliates against the Colombian government and continues its territorial disputes with other criminal actors.

The ELN also has a presence in Venezuela and close ties to the government of President Nicolás Maduro, who claimed victory in recent elections despite irregularities in vote counting.

The Eastern War Front (Frente de Guerra Oriental – FGO) and the Northeastern War Front (Frente de Guerra Nororiental) on the border between Colombia and Venezuela are key to the Maduro regime’s criminal balancing act. Since at least 2016, the ELN has expanded along the border with Venezuela with the approval of the Venezuelan political and military forces, and has adopted an increasingly paramilitary role, defending the interests of the Maduro government. Should Maduro cling to power, these fronts would be less likely to make a deal with the Colombian government.

This article, written by Lara Loaiza and Henry Shuldiner, was originally published by InSight Crime, a Medellín-based foundation dedicated to the investigation and analysis of crime and security in Colombia and Latin America.