A delegation from the new government of Colombia He traveled to Havana this Thursday to start rapprochements with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in order to resume peace talks, which were stalled between 2018 and 2022 during the Presidency of Iván Duque.
This was confirmed to EFE sources close to the process, who detailed that among the travelers is the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, and Senator Iván Cepeda, who for many years has supported peace negotiations with insurgent groups.
This trip comes after Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who took office last Sunday, reaffirmed that he will seek to resume peace talks with the guerrillas and pointed out that in the coming weeks it would be known whether these negotiations will continue to take place. in Cuba.
The negotiations of the Colombian Government with the ELN began in 2017 in Quito, during the Government of Juan Manuel Santos, and in 2018 they were transferred to Havana where the main leaders of the guerrilla are still, despite the fact that during the Government of Duque They were permanently paralyzed.
Petro has said that he wants to resume the protocol already established in the negotiations that “allows the continuation of the ELN talks there (in Havana)”, but it must be the Government of Cuba that accepts to sponsor the talks again, as well as Norway its guarantor role or add new countries for this purpose.
In this sense, Petro has also stated that “Spain has expressed provisions around helping in the Colombian peace process”, in line with the offer that Chile has also made to host the negotiations.
Díaz-Canel ratifies Petro’s “Cuba’s commitment” to peace in Colombia
guerrilla position
The highest commander of the ELN, Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, alias “Antonio García”, stated in an interview with the news CM&published this week, that the peace negotiations must be resumed from the point where they became deadlocked.
“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’s the basics. Therefore, (it should be the) starting point to restart the talks,” said the guerrilla chief.
The ELN, which has grown in strength in recent years, has already shown in various communiqués that it wants to return to the negotiating table to seek peace with the Petro government.
The talks have been on hold since 2018 due to the demand of the Duque government for the ELN to release all the hostages it has in its power and renounce that and all its criminal activities.
After the attack against the cadet school in Bogotá in 2019, which left 22 dead and 68 wounded and was committed by the ELN, the Colombian government asked Cuba to hand over the negotiators who are in Havana, but the island invoked diplomatic protocols to not comply with that request.
