Havana – The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) insurgent group began Tuesday in Havana the third round of the exploratory talks that began last December with a view to structuring a peace process.
The government delegation led by the high commissioner for peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo and the Colombian ambassador to Cuba, Julio Londoño, met with ELN representatives Commander Antonio Garcia, the rebels’ military chief, and his spokesman, Francisco Galan.
None of the delegates would make statements about the outcome of their first contact, although Galan told reporters that the third-round talks will be held behind closed doors until April 29.
The government and the ELN agreed that the goal of this encounter would be to move ahead with the general design of the process and the structuring of an agenda of topics that would have to be dealt with in a possible peace dialogue.
On March 2 during the Colombian elections the ELN, the second most important guerrilla group in the country, declared a truce for the first time in almost 42 years of armed combat. On April 18, however, Garcia said that this in no way signified that the rebels were about to declare an end to hostilities or free their hostages.
The ELN, with some 5,000 fighters, is Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group and has been waging a four-decade-old revolution against a succession of Colombian administrations. The biggest insurgent group is the FARC, with an estimated 17,000 combatants.
