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THE Colombian government and guerilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) are resuming peace talks today, the two sides said in a statement issued on Friday.
The announcement followed the fatal shooting of prominent peace campaigner Mario Oscar Solarte last week.
The agreement to restart peace talks was revealed in a communique signed by High Commissioner for Peace Danilo Rueda and ELN delegate Pablo Beltran.
The communique spoke of the deep desire of the Colombian people, society and the nation to advance in a process of peace and full construction of democracy.
The return to the negotiating table in Caracas, the capital of neighbouring Venezuela, is taking place at the instigation of new President Gustavo Petro’s government.
The text summons national and international journalists to the public ceremony marking the talks’ resumption.
Peace negotiations between Colombian authorities and the ELN began in February 2017, under the administration of then president Juan Manuel Santos.
They were suspended in August 2018, after then right-wing president Ivan Duque made a series of demands of the ELN, including that the group renounce its activities.
After Mr Petro took power last August, both parties initiated contacts with the intention of resuming the dialogues, with Venezuela, Cuba and Norway acting as guarantors.
On Friday, the Colombian attorney general’s office announced the suspension of arrest warrants issued against the negotiators appointed by the ELN for the peace talks.
Meanwhile, Mr Solarte, an official of the Association of Peasant Workers of Valle del Cauca, was murdered on Thursday morning in the Bajo Calima district of Buenaventura, a city in Valle del Cauca department.
The Colombian ombudsman’s office said: “Violence against social leaders attacks peace building and democracy.”
Mr Solarte’s killing brings the number of murders of social leaders to 164 so far this year, according to the Colombian Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz). There have been 1,391 such killings since the signing of the peace accords.
