“The delegation of the Colombian government welcomes the hospitality of Venezuela, which will host an emergency meeting with an ELN delegation next week,” government negotiator Otti Patinho told the press, confirming that the suspension of hostilities will be at the heart of the talks.
Delegations from the Colombian government and the ELN rebel group will hold an “emergency” meeting on Wednesday, January 18, in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, as part of their ongoing peace negotiations, mainly to discuss the confusion surrounding the ceasefire which was announced on New Year’s Day, they announced the parties yesterday Saturday.
“The delegation of the Colombian government welcomes the hospitality of Venezuela, which will host an emergency meeting with an ELN delegation next week,” government negotiator Otti Patinho told the press, confirming that the suspension of hostilities will be at the heart of the talks.
The parties will then resume negotiations “in mid-February” in Mexico, Mr. Patinho added.
Via Twitter, the National Liberation Army confirmed the date of the meeting and the resumption of negotiations, which were in the air after the rebels denied that a six-month ceasefire agreement had been reached, as announced by President Gustavos Petros on New Year’s Day.
The dialogue is intended to find a solution to the “crisis” caused by Mr Petros’ blunder and to discuss the “harmonious continuation of the second round” of peace talks, the rebel group said.
The truce announced by the head of state concerned, in addition to the ELN, the two main dissident factions of the FARC (Segunda Marquetalia, Central General Staff), the AGC (s.s. Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, drug trafficking organization also known as Clan del Golfo ) and Autodefensas de la Sierra Nevada.
Only the ELN has publicly rejected the ceasefire, denying that it agreed to it.
President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist in Colombia’s history — he took office in August 2022 — is pursuing an ambitious policy aimed at what he says is “complete” peace in a country where the endless civil war of the last six decade claimed the lives of nearly half a million people. The government is also preparing to negotiate with other armed groups, notably the FARC dissidents, who reject the 2016 peace deal, and drug-trafficking gangs that have morphed into once far-right paramilitary groups.
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