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Colombia and the ELN officially announce the start of dialogue in Venezuela

2022-10-04T17:20:03.590Z


A delegation from the guerrillas and the Petro government agree to resume dialogue with the UN as the main guarantor


The ELN and the Colombian government announce that they will resume peace talks.

In a call surrounded by secrecy, Colombia and the ELN announced this Tuesday the official start of peace talks from the first week of November.

Delegations from both sides in Venezuela have done it, accompanied by the Catholic Church.

A moderator read a concise statement announcing that an agreement had been reached to reinstate the 2016 negotiating tables and that this time the talks would be attended by a UN verification mission.

In this way, President Gustavo Petro marks the beginning of talks that will be anything but easy.

The Colombian presidents of the last 50 years have tried without success to reach some kind of agreement with this guerrilla that was born in Cuba, when some Colombian students were dazzled by Fidel Castro's revolution.

Petro seeks to demobilize this group, the country's last asset, as the first step towards the concept he calls total peace, that is, for the first time in the country's history there are no illegal armed groups in its territory. .

In the document signed by the parties, it is said that, both for the ELN and for the Government, the participation of society is essential in the changes that Colombia needs to build peace.

Unlike the FARC, which demobilized in 2016, the ELN is a more idealistic guerrilla whose ultimate goal is not to try to take power by force of arms, but to achieve political and social transformations.

At the table where the announcement was made were Danilo Rueda, the Colombian peace commissioner;

Paulo Beltrán and Antonio García, two ELN leaders;

Senator Iván Cepeda and Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao.

There were representatives from Cuba, Venezuela and Norway, the three countries that are currently mediating in the talks.

Chile and Spain have offered to participate in the process.

The statement thanked all of them for "the unwavering commitment" to peace.



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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-10-04

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