Colombia to Launch Peace Talks with ELN Rebels
Local Editor
The Colombian government and the country's second-largest rebel group, the ELN, announced Monday they would launch negotiations on October 27 in Ecuador's capital, with President Juan Manuel Santos predicting "total peace".
Both sides had committed to doing everything in their power to "create an environment favorable to peace" once the talks begin, according to a joint statement delivered at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas.
The move comes as welcome news for Santos, fresh from his Nobel Peace Prize win but still reeling from voters' rejection in a referendum of a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], the country's largest rebel group.
"We've been seeking negotiations with the ELN for almost three years to end the armed conflict with them as well... Now that we're moving forward with the ELN, we will have total peace," Santos said in Bogota.
The ELN freed a civilian hostage, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, ahead of what the rebels had billed as an "important announcement" on potential peace talks with the government.
It was the third hostage release in two weeks by the leftist National Liberation Army [ELN].
Colombia and the ELN agreed in March to launch peace talks, in parallel with the government's negotiations with the FARC.
But the government has said negotiations with the ELN cannot begin until the group frees all its hostages.
In the text presented in Caracas, the ELN vowed to "initiate the process to free hostages before October 27".
The Red Cross said ELN fighters had handed over the latest hostage, who it did not identify, in a remote area in the department of Arauca, on the Venezuelan border.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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