The delegation of heads of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last recognized guerrilla in Colombia, who was in Cuba after the failure of the dialogue with the previous government, returned to Venezuela to face the new stage of talks with the Executive of Gustav Petro.
In a statement, the guerrilla negotiators revealed that they were accompanied by representatives of the guarantor countries of the dialogue, Norway, Cuba and Venezuela.
“Today, with the support of the guarantor countries, the Republic of Cuba, the Kingdom of Norway and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Dialogue Delegation has returned safely and with guarantees. This is a victory of reason and International Law against the purpose of perfidy that the Duque government sought,” the ELN said in a statement.
The text, collected by the Colombian media, thanked Havana for its “commitment to the Peace of Colombia.”
The island’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, also reported the return to South America of the insurgent command.
“The ELN Peace Delegation withdrew this Sunday, October 2, from Cuban territory, in compliance with the Protocols signed between the Republic of Colombia and the National Liberation Army and the Guarantor Countries. Cuba has invariably acted in strict adherence to its status as Guarantor and Alternative Headquarters and according to International Law, and is honored for its impartial, responsible, professional and discreet contribution in the interest of the Peace that the Colombian people long for,” Rodríguez wrote on Twitter. .
The ELN Peace Delegation withdrew this Sunday, October 2, from Cuban territory, in compliance with the Protocols signed between the Republic of Colombia and the National Liberation Army and the Guarantor Countries.
1/2#TheRoadIsPeace– Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) October 3, 2022
The government of Petro had suspended the extradition orders of the chief negotiators Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista, Pablo Beltrán and Aureliano Carbonellin order to advance in the installation of the peace talks table.
hardly assumed Petro once again put on the table the possibility of talks with the ELN to try to reach an agreement similar to the one signed in 2016 with the FARC.
Emerged in 1964, almost simultaneously with the founding of the dissolved FARC, the ELN agreed to negotiate with the government of the later Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the then ruler Juan Manuel Santos, first in Quito and then in Cuba.
However, the government of conservative Iván Duque interrupted the talks in 2019 after the car bomb attack on a police cadet school in Bogotá, which left 22 dead, in addition to the aggressor.
Later, Duque unsuccessfully demanded that Havana hand over the insurgent delegates to prosecute them for terrorism, which deteriorated relations between the two countries.
