Promise kept. As agreed on October 4 in Caracas, delegations from the Colombian government of Gustavo Petro and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group are in Caracas to continue the dialogue.
The purpose of the Conversation Table is to resume the set of agreements and progress achieved since the signing of the agenda on March 30, 2016, as declared on October 4 from the La Casona Aquiles Nazoa Cultural Space.
On this occasion, the delegations meet at the Humboldt Hotel, located in the Warairarepano National Park. Among the attendees are Otti Patiño, head of the Colombian government delegation; Antonio García and Pablo Beltrán, first and second commander of the ELN.
Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda stated that he was “very happy” about the return of the dialogues. “We feel very happy at this moment when we once again have hope for peace in Colombia,” Cepeda said.
The parliamentarian from the neighboring country hopes that definitive progress can be made in a solution to the armed conflict.
The ELN group was born in 1964, but established a dialogue with the Colombian State on August 12, 2012, as Antonio García, the first commander of the aforementioned guerrilla organization, recalled.
That dialogue was interrupted in January 2019 after a car bomb attack on a military installation in Bogotá. With the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the presidency of Colombia, the dialogues revived. And to materialize them, Petro summoned the help of his counterpart Nicolás Maduro as guarantor of the talks.
This role of guarantor is also exercised by the Catholic Church, Cuba, Norway and the United Nations Verification Mission.
The flags of those countries and institutions were hung from this Monday at the entrance of the Humboldt Hotel where the ELN and Petro delegations meet.
