(Havana) The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), a far-left guerrilla, began a new round of negotiations in Havana on Monday to try to find an agreement on an extension of the ceasefire bilateral agreement which expires on January 29.
“The sixth cycle began with the hope of moving forward and getting closer to the transformations that Colombia needs,” the ELN delegation said in a message on X, accompanied by a photo showing its negotiators on the Revolution Square in Havana.
During this new session, the parties will try to extend the ceasefire, signed for six months in June in Havana and entered into force on August 3.
In December, the ELN, the oldest active guerrilla in Colombia, pledged in Mexico to suspend kidnappings, after the kidnapping of the father of Colombian footballer Luis Diaz – released 12 days later – which had jeopardized the process of peace started at the end of 2022.
The kidnapping also prompted Gustavo Petro’s left-wing government to appoint former guerrilla Vera Grabe as its new chief negotiator.
Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in Colombia’s history, has begun talks with the main armed groups operating in the country. With the ELN, but also dissidents from the Marxist FARC (which reject the historic 2016 peace agreement), paramilitary groups and drug traffickers.
This policy of “total peace” encounters numerous obstacles and is severely criticized by the opposition, while some of these armed groups have increased their actions to increase their territorial influence.
Several rounds of negotiations have previously taken place in Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, which act as guarantors with the governments of Brazil, Chile and Norway.
Added to these countries are Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, which are accompanying the talks, as well as a representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Present in the west on the Pacific coast and in the northeast bordering Venezuela, the ELN, which currently has 5,800 fighters, has challenged the Colombian state since its birth in 1964 in the wake of the Cuban revolution.