Government and ELN consider the crisis over and announce the second cycle of negotiations

In the extraordinary meeting between the Colombian government delegation and representatives of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in Caracas, which takes place amid the tension that generated the announcement of President Gustavo Petro After a bilateral ceasefire on December 31, the parties considered the crisis over.

During the first round of negotiations, one of the main commitments agreed between the government and the ELN guerrilla were humanitarian measures to slow down the conflict in the departments of Chocó, in the northwest, and Valle del Cauca, in the southwest, where both parties announced that in Those areas have already started implementing these strategies to benefit the communities.

This is the first public disagreement between the parties since November, when the recently inaugurated government of Gustavo Petro – the first leftist in the history of Colombia – resumed the negotiation table with the ELN after more than three years of rupture.

The private meeting, to which the media were not summoned, was confirmed by the press office of the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace.

Caracas became the venue for the first cycle of talks that ended successfully in December and now continues as the point of the extraordinary meeting because the second cycle should start in Mexico but still does not have a set date.

From the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Colombian president assured that the government did not make a unilateral decision on the ceasefire; However, he acknowledged that there was an error when announcing the subject.

“That story must be told one day. It is not true that we made a unilateral decision, the information that came to us is that there was a provision for the bilateral cessation and that is why we published it, not for other reasons, but knowing who made the mistake is a complementary matter,” said the president. Petro.

In the meeting held in Caracas, Both parties agreed to restart the second cycle of talks on February 13 in Mexico, the venue agreed upon after the first phase of the peace process.

[Con información de Associated Press]

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