Most of the negotiating delegation of the Government of Colombia in the peace talks with the guerrillas of National Liberation Army (ELN) He has been in Havana since Wednesday to begin the third cycle of talks next week.
In it peace process which began in November 2023 in Venezuela and continued last March in Mexico, the parties intend to negotiate for approximately a month in the Cuban capital, where they had previously met until the paralysis of bilateral talks in 2018, during the government of Iván Duke.
According to a report from the Efe news agency, the government team that arrived in Havana is made up of 23 people, including the chief negotiator of the Colombian Executive, José Otty Patiño, and Senator Iván Cepeda.
The work of the third cycle of the Dialogue Table between the Government and the National Liberation Army begins. We apply ourselves to reaching agreements on a ceasefire and social participation in the construction of peace. pic.twitter.com/OzlT6BOR8b
— Iván Cepeda Castro (@IvanCepedaCast) April 27, 2023
The High Commissioner for Peace, Iván Danilo Rueda, had said a day before that the new cycle would begin on May 2.
In turn, ELN indicated that the negotiations will revolve around humanitarian relief, the participation of civil society in the process and the bilateral ceasefire. The office adds that the Colombian government also wishes to agree to a ceasefire, something that could not be achieved in the previous round.
The start of the third cycle has been delayed for several weeks due to the differences in the negotiating positions of both parties and due to violent actions such as the attack that the ELN carried out at the end of March on an army unit, which left 10 dead.
Petro calls for consultations with the government peace delegation after the ELN attack
The outlet points out that the arrival in Havana of the ELN negotiating delegation, headed by Pablo Beltrán, is scheduled for this Thursday.
At the moment, no meetings between the two delegations have been formally scheduled until the third cycle of peace talks officially begins next Tuesday.
The first round of the peace process concluded with an agreement to promote humanitarian relief in some of the regions hardest hit by the armed conflict.
The second cycle closed on March 10 with the recognition by the Government of the political status of the ELN as a “rebel armed organization” and the record of “advances” with a view to reaching an agreement for a bilateral ceasefire.
Efe recalls that the rapprochement with the ELN was resumed by the Government after the arrival to the presidency of Gustavo Petro and that its official reactivation was announced last August in Havana, after a meeting between the parties.
The first meetings that the parties held in Havana for just over a year were suspended in 2018, when then-President Iván Duque paralyzed them as a result of an attack in Bogotá that left 23 dead, mostly police cadets.
Then the Colombian executive refused to guarantee the safe return to the country of the ELN delegation, which should have remained on the island.
