Colombia and ELN guerrillas announce new peace talks

Colombia's government and a delegation from the National Liberation Army (ELN) leftist guerrillas announced they would next month restart peace talks suspended since 2019.

Speaking in Caracas, ELN commander Antonio Garcia said the two parties would re-establish the dialogue process "after the first week of November," with Venezuela, Cuba and Norway acting as guarantors for the talks.

Dialogue started in 2016 under ex-president Juan Manuel Santos, who signed a peace treaty with the larger Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group that subsequently laid down its weapons and created a political party.

But those were called off in 2019 by conservative then-president Ivan Duque following a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogota that left 22 people dead.

President Gustavo Petro, who in August became Colombia's first ever leftist leader, has vowed to take a less bellicose approach to seeking an end to the violence wrought by armed groups, including both leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers.

Reaching out to the ELN was part of his "total peace" policy.

Colombia has suffered more than half a century of armed conflict between the state and various groups of left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

Garcia said, "The causes that provoked the armed conflict, which are inequality, the lack of democracy, inequity, must be confronted" for peace talks to succeed. 

Talks will be hosted by Venezuela, Cuba and Norway on a rotating basis.