Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the suspension of the arrest and extradition orders against the negotiators of the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who are in Cuba to initiate peace talks.
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“I want to announce that by decree, signed on Friday, August 19, I have authorized the reinstatement of the protocols, allowing negotiators again, allowing them to reconnect with their organization, suspending arrest warrants for those negotiators, suspending extradition orders for those negotiators so that start a dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN)said the head of state.
He added that what is ordered is for “try to build the path, hopefully quickly and expeditiously, in which this organization ceases to be an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia“.
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 then-president Iván Duque they were definitively paralyzed.
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Petro stressed that with the resolution signed to suspend the arrest and extradition orders “A new possibility of a peace process begins in Colombia“, what are you waiting for, and they will be”vigilant with the Public Force and the authorities, bring concretely the reduction of violence“.
At the end of a security council held in San Pablo, a town in the department of Bolívar, President Petro also “invited” a the self-defense groups to join the peace talks.
“I invite those who make up the so-called self-defense groups to start a similar path and jointly deliver this region to peace and the life of its own members.“, he pointed out.
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Petro’s decision comes after the approaches of his administration, through the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia, Danilo Rueda, and the Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva, with ELN chiefs in Havana, where they held meetings.
Before these meetings, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez ratified the “invariable commitment” of his country “with peace in Colombia” and his “Will” to continue contributing to the “achievement of peace“.
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For his part, the highest commander of the ELN, Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, alias Antonio García, stated a few days ago, in an interview with the news CM&, that the peace negotiations must be resumed from the point where they got stuck.
“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 non-compliance. It’s the basics. Therefore, (it should be the) starting point to restart the conversations“said the guerrilla leader.
Last Wednesday, August 17, the ELN released five soldiers and a police officer that they had kidnapped in the department of Arauca, border with Venezuela, which is interpreted as a gesture of “goodwill” of the guerrilla to get to resume peace negotiations.
EFE
