The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) will resume peace negotiations starting Monday, November 21 in Caracas, after a suspension of almost four years, the parties announced on Twitter. Norway and Cuba will act as guarantor countries of the process
Negotiations with the last recognized guerrilla in the country were interrupted by the conservative president Iván Duque (2018-2022), after the rebels attacked a police school with a car bomb in January 2019. The attack left 22 victims, in addition to the aggressor.
With the arrival of the left-wing government of Gustavo Petro in August, the parties got closer again and had anticipated that the table would resume at the beginning of this month, although without specifying where.
“We have the main expectation in this resumption of the dialogues is that this armed conflict of more than 50 years between the insurgencies of the well-known National Liberation Army and the Colombian State be overcome, and that this conflict be overcome, for Of course, it is mediated by an agreement that has been fulfilled by the parties,” he told R.F.I. Luis Emil Sanabria, founder of the Colombian organization Redepaz.
So far, the government and the insurgents have not disclosed the complete list of negotiators, although Petro has already designated the cattle rancher leader and opponent of his government, José Félix Lafaurie, as part of his delegation.
The installation of this Dialogue Table in Caracas has been possible after Colombia and Venezuela resumed relations after the arrival of Petro at the Casa de Nariño. Norway and Cuba will be the guarantor countries of the process.
#Attention announcement about dialogues with the ELN. pic.twitter.com/JM9foM0Sm7
– High Commissioner for Peace (@ComisionadoPaz) November 19, 2022
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Founded in 1964 by unionists and students sympathetic to Ernesto “Che” Guevara and the Cuban revolution, the ELN has a strong presence along the 2,200-kilometer border between the two countries.
The parties have not agreed to a ceasefire, but agreed in October to “resume all the agreements and progress achieved since the signing of the agenda” of March 30, 2016.
The last five Colombian presidents have had unsuccessful negotiations with the ELN, which increased its strength from 1,800 to 2,500 members after the suspension of talks with Duque, according to official estimates.
The energy infrastructure and the transnationals in Colombia are their main “military objectives”. He is also waging a bloody dispute over territory with dissidents from the peace pact that disarmed the FARC guerrillas in 2017 and drug trafficking groups of paramilitary origin.
Antonio García, the top commander of the ELN, pointed out in October that the way to seek peace is to “attack the causes” of the “armed conflict, which are inequality, lack of democracy, inequity.”
The negotiation is part of a “total peace” policy with which the new government seeks to end the conflict of almost six decades in Colombia.
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