Colombia begins peace talks with ELN











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CARACAS (Reuters) – Colombia’s government and National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas began peace talks in Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Monday.

When he took office in August, President Gustavo Petro, himself a former rebel of the Marxist group M-19, pledged to bring total peace to Colombia after 60 years of armed conflict by negotiating with the insurgents but also criminal groups involved in the trafficking of drugs and precious stones.

“We can no longer regard each other as enemies, we must work towards reconciliation,” declared the ELN’s chief negotiator, Pablo Beltran.

According to the Colombian authorities, the talks started in Caracas will continue in Cuba and Norway, the two other guarantors of the peace process.

Previous negotiations between Bogota and the ELN, which still has 2,400 fighters, failed due to dissension within the movement founded in 1964 by priests inspired by liberation theology.

Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez warned on Monday that the start of peace talks does not mean the end of military operations against the rebels.

(Report Vivian Sequera, with Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota, French version Tangi Salaün)










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