The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, said Friday that he will appoint a representative to participate in the peace talks between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas that began this week.
This he said in statements to the media after Colombia formalized this Friday the invitation to Spain to attend the process as an accompanying country.
«We will probably designate a person to be present at all these meetings,» said Albares from the IFEMA fairgrounds, where the XXVI Congress of the Socialist International is being held. In addition, he pointed out that in some of these meetings he himself will be present, «depending on the level and intensity» of the meetings, he said.
Thus, he recalled that Spain had placed itself at the disposal of Colombia «so that it may achieve peace» in everything that could be useful. «The decision of the Colombian government has been that Spain is an accompanying country and that is what we do,» he added before pointing out that the agenda «has to be set» by the Executive of the South American country.
«We will be available to accompany this process and for peace to return to Colombia as soon as possible,» he reiterated. He also said that Spain will always be available to participate in all the meetings they need and also «if at any time they want some kind of meeting in Spain,» he said.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND SWEDEN The senator of the Polo Democrático, Iván Cepeda, one of the members of the government delegation, has published on his Twitter profile the first three agreements that have been reached with the ELN guerrilla in the first week of talks held in Caracas, Venezuela.
One of these agreements is which countries have been invited as mediators and accompaniers, the latter group including Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. In the first block, the already known presence of Norway, Cuba and Venezuela is confirmed, while Mexico, Brazil and Chile are invited to «define their participation».
The other actors invited to participate as mediators are the Catholic Church of Colombia and the special representative in Colombia of the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres.
Likewise, the ELN and the Colombian Government have agreed to «advance diplomatic actions» with the United States «to know their willingness to participate in this process through a special envoy».
At the end of October, Colombia already announced that it would offer Spain the possibility of accompanying the negotiations as an observer country, after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, during his official visit to the South American country in August, offered Spanish territory as a venue for negotiations with the ELN.
