Members of the negotiating parties of the peace agreements | Photo: Twitter/ @EEColombia2020

Caracas, October 5 (RHC)-- The Colombian government has announced the resumption of peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.  "The peace talks between our government and the ELN are officially resumed from Caracas, together with the guarantor countries of Venezuela, Cuba and Norway," Colombian President Gustavo Petro tweeted.

This announcement was accompanied by an official statement in which the parties specified that the new peace negotiations would recognize the agreements and progress made since the signing of an agenda established on March 30, 2016.

The reestablishment of the dialogue will formally begin from the first week of November, specifies the statement made by Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace Ivan Danilo Rueda and by ELN commanders Antonio Garcia and Pablo Beltran.

“For the government of Colombia and the ELN, the participation of society in this process is essential,” the signatories said, thanking the guarantor countries and the two special guests: the United Nations Verification Mission and the Catholic Church.

On Tuesday, through an official statement, the Cuban Foreign Ministry informed that Colombia had lifted the arrest warrants against the members of the ELN Peace Delegation.  Previously, in January 2019, the then President Ivan Duque decided to conclude the peace talks that Colombia had been conducting for years in Havana, Cuba.  Subsequently, he requested the extradition of the negotiators and reported them to INTERPOL. 

The Duque administration's actions broke the peace process that Colombian society had been demanding for decades.  Now, however, hope is being reborn, as evidenced by the adherence of Latin American countries to the new peace talks.

"Cuba supports the announcement made today in Caracas by the representatives of the Government of Colombia and the ELN," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tweeted.