Only One Point Left to Finalize Dialogue Agenda, Colombia’s ELN Says

“The preparation of the agenda has advanced, though not concluded. Only one point remains and work is being done to define it so that (the agenda) is based on agreements and not pressure and impositions,” the ELN said Sunday on its website.

The Colombian government and the ELN began exploratory dialogues in January 2014, and in June said in a joint statement that the talks would include topics related to war victims and the participation of society, while other issues were yet to be agreed upon.

The ELN has always maintained that an eventual negotiation should be public in nature, not clandestine like the ongoing peace process in Cuba between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.

The group has equally said that it was ready to discuss any issue in order to reach an agreement, but only if the government was prepared to do the same.

Last month, ELN chief Eliecer Erlinto Chamorro Acosta, also known as Antonio Garcia, said in an interview with Argentine daily El Tiempo newspaper that the agenda for negotiations would have six points.

They agreed on topics such as the participation of society, democracy for peace, war victims, and the implementation of the accord.

Other pending topics awaiting agreement included transformations necessary for peace, and ending the armed conflict.

Despite the exploratory dialogues, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos last week ordered intensified military operations against the ELN in response to an increase in its activities.

The National Liberation Army claimed on its website on Sunday that the increase in the group’s activities was in line with Santos’s policy of making peace amid military confrontation.