The President of Colombia suspends the arrest and extradition orders of the ELN

MADRID, 21 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced this Saturday that he will suspend the arrest and extradition orders against the chief negotiators of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the framework of the peace talks between the Government and the guerrillas.

"I announce that by decree, signed yesterday, I have authorized the reinstatement of the protocols and allow the negotiators to reconnect again with their organization so that a dialogue with the ELN can begin to try to build the path, hopefully quickly and expeditiously, so that this organization ceases to be an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia," Petro announced after finishing a meeting with the military forces in the city of San Pablo, in the north of the country.

With this announcement, the Colombian president ensures the return to peace talks with the ELN. In the same way, he has asked the groups derived from the self-defense groups to follow the same path and be included in the peace projects of the country's institutions.

"I invite those who make up the so-called self-defense groups to start a similar path and jointly deliver this region to peace," added the leader.

The idea is that those who are part of these groups integrate into society to achieve a peaceful environment in the territories.

"This resolution initiates a new possibility of a peace process in Colombia. We will be vigilant with the Public Force and civil authorities so that this brings about a decrease in violence in the south of Bolívar, in our Magdalena Medio, in the lands surrounding the great river Petro explained.

In fact, this Friday saw the first conviction in the United States against an ELN guerrilla. In August 2021 the first two members of the guerrilla were extradited, a year later the Texas Court has convicted the accused Henry Trigos Celón, 'Moncho Picada', for international distribution of cocaine. He has been sentenced to 46 months in prison.

This week the Petro government has resumed talks with the ELN, through the Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Iván Danilo Rueda, and Minister Álvaro Leyva, in Havana, Cuba.

"The parties agree on the need to restart a dialogue process with facts that show Colombian society and the world that this will is real," said the guerrilla chief, Antonio García.

The talks were interrupted after the ELN did not agree to the demands of the government of Iván Duque, which finally suspended any type of dialogue indefinitely in January 2019 when the attack took place on a police cadet school in which Twenty people died.