The Colombian government has taken another step Re-establishment of negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN).. President Gustavo Pedro has announced that he has authorized the suspension of arrest and extradition orders against these guerrilla negotiators in Havana. “Through the decree signed yesterday, I have authorized the restoration of protocol, allowing negotiators to rejoin their organizations, suspending arrest and extradition orders for those negotiators, so that they can resume dialogue with the ELN.” , the president made the pledge this Saturday at the end of the Security Council in the municipality of San Pablo, Bolivar.
The president’s announcement marks a further step toward restarting the process with the guerrillas, which was suspended in 2019 under the Ivan Dug government. Last week, Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva and Peace Commissioner Danilo Ruda from Cuba announced. The Petro executive will seek legal means to move the talks toward restructuring., which has baffled ELN negotiators since its breakup four years ago. The Duke, in addition to ignoring established protocols during the intermission, ordered the capture of the guerrilla leaders, so they were stranded on the island.
The decision announced by the President this Saturday confirms the return of negotiations with the organization and allows those in Cuba to return to Colombia to meet with the leadership, a fundamental step in re-establishing a negotiating schedule.
The ELN has released 15 people since both sides expressed their willingness to resume talks last week, in two moves the government highlighted as signs of the armed group’s interest in advancing a process that would allow them to reach a peace deal. The commissioner, Danilo Ruda, promised from Havana that the government would find a way to show commitment in the same direction. “ELN will take necessary steps to resume talks. Both sides agree on the need to initiate a dialogue process The true will of the Colombian government And the ELN seeks complete, stable, lasting and sustainable peace,” said Rueda from Cuba.
Negotiations with the National Liberation Army, initially established in Quito, were moved to Havana in 2018, but they were suspended after a brutal attack on a police school by these guerrillas in 2019, a few months after Ivan Dug became president. Bogotá, twenty dead and many injured. At that time the president decided to end any process with the armed organization and ordered the capture of the guerrilla leaders who remained in Cuba as part of the process initiated with the government of Juan Manuel Santos. After several complaints from Duke, the Donald Trump administration designated Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism” in January 2021.
With Petro’s coming to power, he was able to make progress on two fronts that had hindered the resumption of talks with the ELN. The first occurred a week ago during a government delegation’s visit to Havana, in which the Colombian government called on Cuba to end what the US government calls Cuba’s support for terrorism. “Colombia rejects the qualms of supporting terrorism that has sought to ignore Cuba’s commitment to peace,” Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said. The second came into force this Saturday, with the suspension of arrest warrants against guerrilla leaders on the island. Both steps were deemed necessary to reconsider the path to peace with the last active guerrillas in Colombia.
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