Colombia's government gave the green light on Friday to resume peace talks with the country's largest remaining rebel force, a key electoral promise that brought leftist President Gustavo Petro to power earlier this week.

Colombian government officials on Friday met with members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Havana, where they have been based since 2018, with Bogota saying it officially recognizes the "legitimacy of dialogue... in the search for peace."

"Both parties agree on the need to restart a dialogue process with facts that show Colombian society and the world that this will is real," High Commissioner for Peace Danilo Rueda said.

Present at the meeting were officials from Norway and Cuba, the guarantors of the talks, as well as representatives of the UN secretary-general and the Colombian Episcopal Conference.

Petro, a former guerilla who has vowed to pursue negotiations with the rebels, has said that he wants to strike new peace agreements with the ELN and other armed organizations, as well as end the government's "war on drugs," which he considers a failure.

At a press conference in Bogota, Petro said that rapprochement with the ELN is "a tentative process of looking at what was left four years ago and seeing what can be rescued."

Prior talks failed to make it beyond the exploratory stage after right-wing former president Ivan Duque took power in August 2018.

Following Friday's announcement out of Havana, the Colombian government reported the release of nine people who had been held by the ELN since July 13 in the department of Arauca, which borders Venezuela. The group had held 11 people, but two died in captivity.

The ELN, the last recognized guerrilla group in the country after the disarmament of the FARC, expressed its intention to negotiate with Petro shortly after his election.

Hundreds of dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have continued fighting after their comrades put down their arms under a 2016 peace accord that ended more than half a century of armed conflict.

Despite the agreement, Colombia has seen a flare-up of violence due to fighting over territory and resources among the dissidents, the hold-out ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.

Amid the spike in violence, Petro Friday appointed a new military command with a clear objective to "substantially increase respect for human rights and public freedoms" as well as reduce violence and crime.

Related Links
Space War News

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

US envoy to travel to Gulf to strengthen Yemen truce
Washington (AFP) Aug 11, 2022
The US State Department announced Thursday that its special envoy to Yemen will travel to the Gulf region this week to help extend the truce in the war-torn nation. Tim Lenderking will travel to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia starting August 11, while members of his team travel to Jordan, hoping to secure an expansion of the UN-mediated truce between Yemen's warring parties. The efforts aim to "pave the way for a permanent ceasefire and an inclusive, durable Yemeni-led resolutio ... read more