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Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and ELN leader Antonio Garcia (from left to right) in Havana
Photo: YAMIL LAGE / AFP
The Colombian government and the guerrilla organization ELN have agreed on a six-month ceasefire during peace negotiations. The ceasefire is to apply for 3 days from 180 August. Colombian President Gustavo Petro and the leader of the Marxist-Leninist ELN, known as Antonio García, presented an agreement to this effect on Friday in the Cuban capital Havana. The so-called Cuba Accords also included an agreement on the participation of civil society in the peace process.
The talks in Havana began on 2 May. It was the third round of negotiations since the left-wing government of Petro, an ex-guerrilla from the M-19 group, resumed talks with the ELN (National Liberation Army) last November after a four-year hiatus. The previous government of conservative President Iván Duque broke off the peace process with the ELN in 2019 after a bomb attack by the group on a police academy in Bogotá that killed 22 people. In addition to other countries, Germany is also accompanying this. Talks are scheduled to continue in Venezuela from 14 August.
The clashes in the South American country between left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and the military broke out in 1964. Since then, about 220,000 people have lost their lives and millions have been displaced. In 2016, after talks in Cuba, the government and the largest rebel group, the FARC, signed a peace agreement, and a newly founded party of ex-combatants was guaranteed five parliamentary seats. Some so-called FARC dissidents rejected the agreement and went underground.
ani/dpa