The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last recognized rebel group in the country, on Friday said they would invite the US to join their peace process.
The talks are an initiative by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who in August became the country’s first-ever leftist leader and has vowed a less bellicose approach to ending violence wrought by armed groups, including leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers.
The parties resumed formal talks in Venezuela on Monday for the first time since 2019.
Photo: Bloomberg
They agreed to reach out to the US via diplomatic channels “to find out its willingness to participate in the process” and send a special envoy, according to a statement from Norway, one of the guarantors of the talks.
The statement said the talks had taken place in an environment of “trust and optimism.”
The US Department of State did not confirm any possible US involvement.
Photo: REUTERS
“At this point we continue to engage the Petro administration to better understand plans to seek a total peace with the ELN, FARC dissidents, and other criminal organizations,” a state department spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the remaining armed members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group.
“The ELN remains a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization under US law,” the department added.
The parties also agreed to invite Brazil, Chile and Mexico to join Norway, Cuba and Venezuela as guarantors of the process.
Mexico agreed to take part in the talks during a meeting between Petro and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday, a government statement said.
The two leaders discussed their “conviction to work together for peace in the region,” it said.
Germany, Switzerland and Spain would also be invited as “accompanying countries,” the Norwegian statement said.
About 30 delegates are attending the talks, which are expected to last three weeks.
Colombia has experienced more than half a century of armed conflict between the government and left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
The ELN began as a leftist ideological movement in 1964 before turning to crime, focusing on kidnapping, extortion of the oil industry and drug trafficking in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela.
It has about 2,500 members, 700 more than it did when negotiations were last broken off. It is primarily active in the Pacific region and along the 2,200km border with Venezuela.
Dialogue with the group started in 2016 under then-Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, who signed a peace treaty with FARC, which subsequently abandoned its weapons and created a political party.
However, talks with the ELN were called off in 2019 by then-Colombian president Ivan Duque following a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogota that left 22 people dead.
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