The ceasefire agreed between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas is close to being concluded, the official delegation leading the peace negotiations warned on Saturday. Call on the armed group to reactivate the table and overcome the impasse in the talks.
The bilateral ceasefire deadline is August 3, when the 180-day period for which it was extended since February by mutual agreement ends.
“Time is running out for the renewal of the ceasefire,” the government delegation said in a statement, expressing concern about the halt in actions that would lead to fulfilling the commitments made at the round table. Among them, it mentions the participation of civil society in peacebuilding and the preparation of the extension, which requires prior work, it said.
This is not the first time the government has called on the armed group to resume talks that have been frozen since April. In mid-June, it had already proposed restarting the cycle of talks.
The divergences that plunged into a crisis in the negotiations With this guerrilla group, a parallel dialogue was initiated with the support of the government, which is being carried out by local authorities in Nariño, a department bordering Ecuador, and an old faction called “Comuneros del Sur”, which the ELN does not recognize as part of its structure.
The guerrillas considered that the government tried to make them appear divided and carry out a “demobilization operation” in Nariño against the ELN.
Despite attempts to unblock the talks at an extraordinary meeting in Caracas, the guerrillas emphasized in mid-May that the talks were suspended.
The ELN has made its reactivation conditional on the government’s compliance with agreements that, in its opinion, have been disrespected, such as the removal from the list of organized armed groups to give it a more political status.
The government has not admitted to having breached the agreements and has continued with the talks in Nariño, an area where several armed groups operate in conjunction with organisations dedicated to drug trafficking and illegal mining.
On this point, the official delegation itself insisted in the statement on its request to the government to “reaffirm the National Roundtable as the negotiating body with the ELN.”
He reiterated the call to “resolve the difficulties in a bilateral and constructive manner,” highlighting the value of the dialogues “that have shown concrete and verifiable results,” he concluded.
The ELN, founded in 1964, has a presence in more than 200 municipalities. It is made up of fronts that respond to a central command and is currently led by alias “Antonio García”, whose real name is Eliécer Chamarro.
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