(EFE).- The Colombian president, Gustavo Petroannounced this Saturday the suspension of the arrest and extradition orders against the guerrilla negotiators of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who are in Cuba to start peace talks.
“I want to announce that by decree, signed yesterday, I have authorized the restoration of the protocols, allowing negotiators again, allowing them to reconnect with their organization, suspending arrest warrants for those negotiators, suspending extradition orders for those negotiators to begin dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN),” said the head of state.
He added that what was ordered is to “try to build the path, hopefully quickly and expeditiously, where this organization ceases to be an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia.”
The negotiations of the Colombian Government with the THE N They began in 2017 in Quito, during the government of Juan Manuel Santos, and in 2018 they were transferred to Havana, where the main guerrilla leaders are still present, despite the fact that during the government of then-president Iván Duque they were definitively paralyzed.
What was ordered, Petro said, is to “try to build the path, hopefully quickly and expeditiously, where this organization ceases to be an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia.”
He stressed that with the resolution signed to suspend the arrest and extradition orders “a new possibility of a peace process begins in Colombia”, which he hopes and will be “vigilant with the security forces and the authorities, specifically bringing about a decrease in violence “.
At the end of a security council held in San Pablo, a town in the department of Bolívar (north), President Petro also “invited” the self-defense groups to join the peace talks.
“I invite those who make up the so-called self-defense groups to start a similar path and jointly deliver this region to peace and the life of its own members,” he said.
Petro’s decision comes after the approaches of his Administration, through the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, and Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, with the ELN chiefs in Havana, where they held meetings.
Petro’s decision comes after the approaches of his Administration with the heads of the ELN in Havana, where they held meetings
Before these meetings, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez ratified his country’s “invariable commitment” “to peace in Colombia” and its “will” to continue contributing to the “achievement of peace.”
For his part, the top commander of the ELN, Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, alias “Antonio García”, stated a few days ago in an interview with the CM& newscast that the peace negotiations should be resumed at the point where they were stalled.
“The one who broke it (the peace negotiation) was the Government of Duque, now the new Government and the Colombian State must be safe from said breach. It is the basics. Therefore, (it must be the) starting point to restart talks,” said the guerrilla chief.
Last Wednesday, the ELN released five soldiers and a police officer who had been kidnapped in the Colombian department of Arauca, on the border with Venezuela, which is interpreted as a gesture of “good will” by the guerrillas to resume negotiations. of peace.
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