Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Politics

Colombia's government, ELN guerrillas complete first round of talks

Pablo Beltran, head of the leftist guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), and Otty Patino, head of the negotiation team of the Colombian Government, attend a news conference after holding the last round of peace talks with Colombia's government for this year, in Caracas, Venezuela December 12, 2022. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

Representatives of Colombia's government and of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas completed the first round of peace talks in Venezuela's capital Caracas on Monday, with the next round of negotiations to take place in Mexico.

The two sides restarted peace talks on Nov. 21 with the intention of ending the ELN's part in Colombia's almost six decades of armed conflict, which has left at least 450,000 dead.

Mexico will hold the next round of talks starting in January, said Mexico's ambassador in Caracas, Leopoldo de Gyves, after the North American country agreed to be an official guarantor for the peace talks.

Aureliano Carbonell, Danilo Rueda, Ivan Cepeda, Pablo Beltran, head of the leftist guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), and Otty Patino, head of the negotiation team of the Colombian Government, attend a news conference after holding the last round of peace talks with Colombia's government for this year, in Caracas, Venezuela December 12, 2022. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

Pablo Beltran, head of the ELN delegation, said talks would restart in the first quarter of next year.

Speaking from Bogota Colombia's Defense Minister, Ivan Velasquez, on Monday acknowledged "a noticeable drop in operations" by the ELN since the talks restarted.

In a joint statement the negotiating parties said they had reached four points of agreement so far, including acknowledging the serious violence and the need for emergency attention for Colombia's provinces of Choco and Valle del Cauca, without giving further details.

Pablo Beltran, head of leftist guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), talks with Danilo Rueda during a news conference after holding the last round of peace talks with Colombia's government for this year, in Caracas, Venezuela December 12, 2022. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

The statement also reported that the ELN - accused of financing itself through kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal mining - has released 20 hostages since August.

Beltran did not respond when asked how many people the group was still holding.

Talks between the ELN and the government of Juan Manuel Santos began in 2017 in Ecuador, later moving to Cuba, but were called off in 2019 by Santos' successor, Ivan Duque, because the ELN refused to halt hostilities and killed 22 police cadets in a bombing.

The ELN, which has some 2,400 combatants and was founded in 1964 by radical Catholic priests, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by David Gregorio)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.