Colombia, ELN rebels to hold next phase of peace talks in Cuba

Colombia’s authorities and National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels will maintain a 3rd spherical of talks in Cuba geared toward ending a long time of armed battle, the 2 sides have mentioned.

The dialogue has made “substantial progress” since resuming in Mexico on February 13, following a primary spherical in Venezuela in November, a press release mentioned on Wednesday.

The negotiators reported late final month that the Colombian authorities had recognised the ELN as a political organisation with a view to advance the method.

There has been phrase of progress in the direction of a bilateral ceasefire.

A date has but to be introduced for the following section of the dialogue in Cuba.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted that the island nation was “honored to accept” the request to host the following spherical of talks with the ELN.

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Decades of armed battle

Colombia has suffered greater than half a century of armed battle between the state and numerous teams of left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

The Colombian authorities resumed peace talks with the ELN, the nation’s final recognised armed rebels, after Gustavo Petro turned the South American nation’s first ever left-wing president in August.

The talks had been suspended by his conservative predecessor Ivan Duque following a automobile bomb assault on a police academy in Bogota that left 22 folks lifeless.

In their assertion, the events “profoundly” thanked the Cuban authorities and other people for his or her assist within the seek for peace in Colombia.

Havana was the venue for the negotiations that culminated within the demobilisation in 2016 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [or FARC], which for years was the nation’s largest guerrilla group.

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Source: AFP