Colombia govt, ELN rebels to resume peace process

CALI

The Colombian government and left-wing insurgent National Liberation Army (ELN) have said they had agreed at talks in Venezuela to resume their stop-start peace process.

In a joint statement, the two sides said they would relaunch peace negotiations from Nov. 19 to 25, two months after President Gustavo Petro suspended the talks after an ELN attack on a military base that killed three soldiers and injured 28 others.

The ELN is the biggest of the armed groups still active in Colombia since the government signed a deal with the much bigger FARC Marxist rebel group, which disarmed in 2017 after more than 50 years of war with the state.

In a statement on X after several days of talks in Caracas, ELN expressed its "desire for peace" and proposed a "new negotiating model" that would verify compliance by both parties with agreements reached during the dialogue.

Last week, Petro's office quoted his chief negotiator, Vera Grabe, as saying that "reactivating" a ceasefire would be among the issues on the table.

The deal with FARC aimed at ending the longest-running war in the Americas, but holdout FARC splinter groups and the ELN refused to make peace.

Petro launched peace talks with the various groups after being elected Colombia's first left-wing president in 2022.

ELN in August opted not to renew a ceasefire in force since 2023.