Colombia agrees with ELN rebel group to extend truce | FARC News

The 2 sides have agreed to increase a landmark deal struck in August final yr that expired final week.

Colombia has agreed with The Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN) to increase a landmark truce deal that expired final week.

The federal government in Caracas mentioned on Tuesday that it has agreed with Colombia’s largest remaining armed insurgent group to increase the suspension of battle by six months. The deal provides additional hope of an finish to many years of violence.

President Gustavo Petro signed in August last year a cope with ELN for a 180-day halt in preventing following lengthy negotiations. The truce was lengthened by 5 days after it expired final week.

The events launched separate statements early on Tuesday asserting an additional six-month extension.

PRÓRROGA DEL CESE AL FUEGO BILATERAL, NACIONAL Y TEMPORAL
Hemos acordado prorrogar a partir de las 00:00 horas del día 6 de febrero de 2024, por ciento ochenta (180) días, el Cese al Fuego Bilateral, Nacional y Temporal (CFBNT).
🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/7ELXbEkOR5

— Delegación ELN (@DelegacionEln) February 6, 2024

Translation: EXTENSION OF THE BILATERAL, NATIONAL AND TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE
We have now agreed to increase, beginning at 00:00 [05:00 GMT] on February 6, 2024, for 100 and eighty (180) days, the Bilateral, Nationwide and Momentary Ceasefire (CFBNT).

Authorities assist to interchange kidnapping?

Colombia has suffered greater than half a century of battle between the federal government and varied left- and right-wing armed teams, in addition to drug traffickers.

ELN began in 1964 as a leftist ideological motion by college students, union leaders and clergymen impressed by Cuba’s revolution. It is believed to have about 4,000 fighters in Colombia, and can also be current in Venezuela, the place it runs unlawful gold mines and drug trafficking routes.

It is usually recognized for staging kidnappings for ransom and assaults on oil infrastructure. The USA and the European Union have listed it as a “terrorist” organisation.

Below the deal, ELN agreed to droop kidnapping, main it to ask the federal government for monetary assist to interchange misplaced income.

The armed group mentioned it can “unilaterally and quickly droop financial detentions, a dedication that shall be adopted up by the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism”.

Lengthy highway to truce

In 2016, a peace agreement disbanded the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, generally known as FARC. That made ELN the nation’s largest remaining insurgent group. It has since elevated its actions in territories previously beneath FARC management.

In 2019, peace talks with ELN have been known as off by conservative former President Ivan Duque after a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogota that killed 22 individuals.

Talks between Bogota and the ELN have been relaunched in November 2022 in neighbouring Venezuela. A number of rounds of peace talks have adopted, with the method supported by Mexico, Norway, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and Chile as guarantors.