Colombian government and ELN postpone end of third cycle of peace talks | News

The delegations of the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) that are participating in peace talks in Havana announced this Thursday the postponement until Friday of the closure of the third round of talks, an act that will be led by President Gustavo Petro .

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Through a statement, the parties reported that they requested one more day from President Petro and the first commander of the ELN, Antonio García, "to hold the closing event of the third cycle of the Roundtable for Peace Dialogues, in order to finalize details of the texts of the Cuban Agreements and their respective protocols”.

In a message released through Twitter by the armed group, the delegations are seen "working on the necessary documents and protocols to achieve the signing of agreements and that these can be announced."

These Peace Dialogues began in November 2022 in Caracas, Venezuela, and continued in Mexico City this past February-March. The third round began on May 2 in the Cuban capital. Previously, the parties made it known that they would examine the bilateral ceasefire, humanitarian relief and the participation of civil society in the peace process, among other substantive issues.

Regarding the peace process, the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, declared this Thursday that with the ELN "there will be a national ceasefire, and simultaneously we will have scenarios of territorial incidence."

He added that this "will have very specific effects in the territories, with educational processes, and additionally with some guarantees to facilitate the reduction of anxiety in the inhabitants of various territories of the country."

He stressed that this is the "first time that the ELN, in the various peace processes, with different governments, agrees to a bilateral cessation for six months with monitoring and verification mechanisms that will be installed in the coming days and weeks."

He valued as positive the atmosphere of trust achieved during the talks. "It is observed that with the ELN peace delegation, and thanks to the meticulous work of the peace delegation of our Government, an environment of absolute confidence and security is being generated to be able to face setbacks," he said.

He assured that thanks to the work carried out it will be possible "to have very good news in the medium term, achieving that the exercise of the policy without weapons can be achieved in our country."

This optimism was also conveyed by the general director of Latin America and the Caribbean at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Eugenio Martínez, who in a message posted on Twitter appreciated that the third round of the Peace Talks comprised "five weeks of hard work by the parties that we hopefully accompany. There is a firm path towards peace”, he pointed out.