The peace dialogues undertaken by different guerrilla groups and the government of Belisario Betancur marked history and set a precedent never seen before: government and insurgent groups sitting at the same table to talk about peace. These dialogues became controversial as they were deemed a failure, while different actors tried desperately to safeguard their responsibility, glossing over the high costs that the civil society, in the middle of the conflict, had to pay. Nonetheless, this scenario laid the foundations of a political concertation that would make possible, at a later stage, the promulgation of the 1991 Constitution, with the participation of former Movimiento 19 de abril (M-19) fighters, of previously excluded sectors of society -women, afro-descendant and indigenous groups-, and of traditional political parties. In that way, we wish to explore the roles played by the civil society, the government, the military forces, and the insurgents while the peace dialogues took place. This is important to understand the failure or success attributed to this event.