Colombian government and ELN resume peace talks in Havana

HAVANA, Cuba, May 10 (ACN) Havana will host from today the fifth round of the Roundtable of Dialogues for Peace between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The head of the island's team of guarantors, Iván Mora Godoy, confirmed last week that Cuba received the official request from the Colombian government and the ELN to host the new round of talks.

Cuba expressed its willingness to assume the fifth cycle and the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, confirmed on Wednesday in Germany that the peace talks with the ELN would be resumed in Havana.

The talks with the ELN are being renewed, to see if we can achieve a ceasefire, said the South American president at a meeting with businessmen in Berlin, according to European media reports.

Santos said that although he will no longer be able to sign the peace agreement with the ELN as his presidency ends on Aug. 7, he is convinced that he will leave the issue on the right track for his successor.

Peace talks between the Colombian government and the ELN began in February 2017 and their greatest achievement was to achieve a 101-day bilateral ceasefire between 1 October and 9 January, when an impasse halted negotiations.

Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Norway and Venezuela, the countries guaranteeing the talks, have reiterated that this South American nation deserves the peace that its people, the region and the international community yearn for.

The fifth cycle of the Peace Dialogue Roundtable has been postponed since last January and the parties must now - as the guarantors have pointed out - assume as a priority the negotiation of a subsequent ceasefire, together with the agenda items.

There have been calls on the parties to avoid an escalation that would jeopardize the progress made in the negotiation process and in the previous ceasefire.

In the presence of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and other leaders, peace agreements between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the People's Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government were signed in September 2016.

After four years of talks on the San Francisco esplanade of the Cartagena de Indias Convention Center in Colombia, the historic event took place, a precedent for the talks now taking place with the ELN.