Petro will travel to Cuba to close the third cycle of negotiations with the ELN

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he will travel to Havana, Cuba, on Thursday as part of the closing of the third cycle of negotiations between his government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla.

“I am going to sign a paper that can mean the beginning without retreat of an era of peace for this country,” the president said this Wednesday in a speech in front of trade unionists and other supporters gathered in the center of Bogotá, summoned by their government to support the possible reforms that are being processed in Congress.

The announcement creates expectations of a possible announcement of the bilateral ceasefire, since it is one of the cards that are on the table, in this negotiation cycle, together with the participation of civil society in the peace process.

Regarding whether or not an agreement will be announced in this regard, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia told the voice of america that “the delegations are working in that direction”.

The last week of May, the delegations reported the extension of the closure of the cycle in Cuba for June 8 and affirmed that they are “positively advancing their work”.

In Havana, where the delegations have been meeting since May 2, they presented what the rebels called models of bilateral ceasefire.

“The parties have presented their reports on the participation of Colombian society in the peace process and on the model of the bilateral and national ceasefire with which it is intended to improve the situation of the population,” the ELN said in a statement released on Friday, May 12.

The discussions have gone through several disagreements between the parties. Last month, the delegations had announced the continuity of the negotiating table, after the group announced a “pause” in the process, due to the “contradictions” of the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.

In January, in an extraordinary meetingthe parties considered that a crisis unleashed in the midst of the tension that generated Petro’s announcement of a bilateral ceasefire on December 31, and of which, according to the armed group, it was not informed.

Cuba is the third stage of negotiations, after the meetings in Venezuela and Mexico, since the end of last year. The government and the ELN began talks in November 2022since President Petro seeks, among other initiatives, to approach and negotiate with the armed groups to achieve one of his axes of government: complete peace.

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