The guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) is in favor of a bilateral ceasefire to resume peace negotiations with the Government of Colombia, the head of the rebel group’s negotiating team said on Wednesday, affirming that the organization is united to return to the dialog table.
Pablo Beltrán, who heads the leftist ELN delegation in Cuba, said that he and other members of the negotiating team who have remained in Havana since the talks collapsed in 2019 would return to Colombia in the coming weeks if security guarantees are given to plan your strategy before the restart of the dialogues.
Beltrán, a soft-spoken rebel who fought in the Marxist guerrillas in rural and urban fighting in Colombia, said a previous bilateral ceasefire of more than 100 days in 2017 was “positive” and must be “repeated.”
“At this moment we are not on an offensive plane,” he told Reuters in an interview on the outskirts of Havana.
“If you look, it’s a positive, constructive attitude, to tell the government, we hope that we resume the table. That is the attitude of the ELN,” he assured. The head of the rebel group also said that negotiations with the government could resume “in a few weeks.”
The election as president of leftist Gustavo Petro, who belonged to the demobilized M-19 guerrilla, helped open the door for the resumption of peace talks in the South American country.
Petro announced his intention to seek “total peace” to end a violent armed conflict of almost six decades that has left some 450,000 dead and to implement an agreement signed in 2016 with the former FARC guerrilla.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced on Tuesday that will serve as guarantor in the negotiations and Beltrán assured that the president of the oil nation is a key player in making it easier for ELN negotiators to meet with other rebel leaders who still operate in Colombia and along the border with Venezuela.
The rebel group, founded in 1964 and to which radical Catholic priests belonged, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Add Comment