The Colombian Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) would resume peace talks in Mexico at the end of January 2023, and not at the beginning of January 2023, as initially planned.
The guerrilla and Gustavo Petro’s Executive would be analyzing the conditions and logistics to resume the dialogue table at the end of January, as confirmed by Colombian Government sources to ‘El Colombiano’.
The objective of the two delegations is that other countries such as Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain join the dialogues to facilitate the process, while Mexico and Chile continue as guarantor countries. In addition, other countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and Norway will accompany both sides during the peace process.
On December 12, the two delegations concluded the first round of talks with four partial agreements, including a humanitarian pact for Bajo Calima, Valle del Cauca, Chocó and Medio San Juan, which will come into force in January and will allow the return of hundreds of families displaced by the violence in those regions.
The second agreement is the attention to the health conditions of a group of ELN political prisoners; while the third is the promotion of pedagogy to broaden international support for the talks. The fourth is the Christmas truce declared by the armed group, which will last until January 2.
To this last announcement was added that of the dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who also accepted a cessation of hostilities during the Christmas period.
Although these are partial agreements, they are of great humanitarian importance to de-escalate the conflict while the negotiations of the first table of dialogues of the Executive advance, according to ‘El Colombiano’.
All in all, the Colombian Executive and the National Liberation Army culminated their first cycle of peace negotiations, initiated last November 22 in the Venezuelan capital and with which they have returned to the path of dialogue, abandoned in 2019.
Even before his arrival to the Presidency of Colombia, Gustavo Petro was predisposed to reach a peace agreement with the guerrillas in the framework of his proposal for «total peace» with all armed actors in the country.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
