The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has informed that the Colombian Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas have their negotiating teams ready to begin peace talks.
«Yes, they are already (..) also those of the Government so we will already talk about that in Bogota», Petro has indicated in declarations to the press from Paris.
«The protocols were made in the Santos government. We have simply collected them. They have their list of negotiators. I already know it, but I don’t know if it has been made public in Colombia yet. We have to make the other effort, the counterpart at the negotiating table. The place that has to be done in a common way has not been defined yet», Petro has pointed out.
At the moment it is known that the ELN list is headed by alias ‘Pablo Beltrán’ and alias ‘Aureliano Carbonell’, who had already participated in previous negotiations with the government of Juan Manuel Santos.
There will also be participation of women. Teacher Silvana Guerrero and Consuelo Tapias, former negotiators of the group, will be at the table on behalf of the ELN.
Nicolás Rodríguez, alias ‘Gabino’, would not be at the main table and ‘Antonio García’ would join the negotiation weeks after the beginning of the contacts. Former negotiators Alirio Sepúlveda, Isabel Torres, Tomás García, Óscar Serrano and Viviana Henao will again be part of the delegation.
On November 9, the Colombian Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, assured that the military would finally participate in the negotiations, although with some specific conditions.
Petro has received the support of the French government during his visit to Paris. Meanwhile, the guerrilla group has confirmed the kidnapping of two soldiers in Tame, Arauca, who would be handed over in the next few days to human rights organizations.
