Arrest warrants against ELN negotiators have been suspended
President Gustavo Pedro hopes a future peace process with the last rebel group, the ELN, will be “quick and quick.”
Gustavo Pedro, who was elected on June 19, promised during his campaign to resume peace talks with armed groups.
AFP
Colombian President Gustavo Pedro on Saturday announced the suspension of arrest and extradition warrants issued against ELN guerrilla negotiators trying to restart the peace process in Cuba.
“I have authorized (…) the suspension of arrest warrants against these negotiators and the suspension of deportation orders so that dialogue can begin with the National Liberation Army (ELN),” announced Gustavo Pedro after a security council in San. Pablo (North).
Six Decades of Armed Uprising
The Colombian president, the first left-wing leader in Colombia’s history, said he hoped future peace talks with the last rebel group in Colombia would be “quick and swift,” ending six decades of armed insurgency.
The ELN delegation to Cuba, which held its first meeting with government officials last week, consists of ten people and is led by one of its commanders, Pablo Beltran. The United States has requested the extradition of 11 insurgents accused of drug trafficking, but none are in the delegation.
After the signing of a historic peace agreement with the former Guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Marxists) in 2016, negotiations with the ELN led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2010) began the following year. 2018), first in Quito and later in Havana.
2500 members
But his successor, the conservative Ivan Duque, followed an attack on a police academy in Bogotá in January 2019, killing all but 22 cadets. According to officials, the ELN currently has about 2,500 members, compared to 1,800 at the time of the negotiations. It is mainly found in the Pacific region and bordering Venezuela.
Gustavo Pedro, who was elected on June 19, promised during his campaign to resume peace talks with armed groups and end the “war on drugs” policy. He also announced on Saturday that he had extended his offer of dialogue to the Gulf Clan cartel, Colombia’s largest armed drug-trafficking organization, which is believed to still have 1,700 members.
AFP
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