The countries guaranteeing the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas expressed their hope that the negotiations resumed this Monday (21) in Caracas reach a good conclusion.
This is what Norway and the dictatorships of Cuba and Venezuela, which constitute the group of guarantors of the negotiations, stated in a brief joint statement with the Colombian Catholic Church and the United Nations, the latter two acting as guests.
“We appreciate the trust placed in us. We look forward to the process that takes place today. Without a doubt, it is an important step towards achieving peace in Colombia,” they said in the statement.
The Colombian government and the ELN restarted this Monday in the Venezuelan capital the peace talks that began in 2017 in Quito, during the mandate of the then Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, and which were later transferred to Havana and suspended in 2018 by his successor, Iván Duque, due to the ELN attack on the Cadet School in Bogotá that left 22 dead and 68 wounded.
The attack led the Colombian government to ask Cuba to hand over the guerrilla negotiators who were in Havana, a request that was not granted by the Castro dictatorship. In August, Gustavo Petro’s government suspended arrest warrants and extradition requests against delegates on the Caribbean island.
The parties, meeting in a hotel in Caracas, said in a joint statement that they agreed to “restart with full political will and ethics the process of political dialogue”, understood as a claim “of rural and urban territories that suffer from violence and exclusion” and stressed that peace must be understood as a “State policy”.
“We express our satisfaction at being able to witness today the resumption of the peace negotiating table, as agreed between the government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, ELN, on October 4 in the city of Caracas”, added the guarantors.
In addition, they promised “to act in strict compliance with our condition granted by the parties, in a responsible and impartial manner”.
Cuba and Norway previously acted as guarantors in the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas, which led to the 2016 peace agreement, in which Venezuela, along with Chile, played the role of accompanying country.
However, peace talks with the ELN face strong resistance in Colombian society. This Monday, Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal criticized the release of Violeta Arango Ramírez, accused of having participated in the attack at the Andino shopping center in Bogotá, in 2017, which left three dead and nine injured, to participate in the talks.
The Colombian Public Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the attack was carried out by the People’s Revolutionary Movement (MRP), which has already been identified as a dissidence of the ELN.
“They said that Violeta was not part of the ELN, she would be a victim; but it is now confirmed that she will be a ‘peace manager’ in dealings with these terrorists. What a disaster, a system where the will of the perpetrator prevails, rather than the rights of the victims,” Cabal wrote on Twitter.
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