CARACAS, Venezuela – The government of Colombia and the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN) terrorist organization initiated peace talks on Monday in Venezuela under the auspices of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Colombia, now led by the far-left former M19 guerilla member Gustavo Petro, is seeking to end the South American nation’s over-60-year-old conflict with the ELN terrorist group as part of Petro’s “total peace” presidential campaign promise.
The peace talks between Colombia and ELN will take place in Venezuela’s Hotel Humboldt, a luxury high class hotel that is out of reach for the majority of Venezuelans living in poverty. The hotel was built in 1956 under the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez and is now under the socialist regime’s control.
The ELN was founded in 1964 by Colombian rebels trained in Cuba. It is one of the two main Marxist terrorist organizations in Colombia alongside the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and, much like FARC, ELN pivoted into narcotics and drug trafficking to fund its terrorist activities.
Several attempts at peace talk have occurred in the past. The last attempt began in 2017 in Ecuador, eventually moving to Cuba under the sponsorship of the communist Castro regime. The talks came to an abrupt end in 2019 after the terrorist group attacked a police academy with a car bomb in 2019, killing 21 police cadets.
Following the terrorist attack, Colombia’s then-President Iván Duque said that the ELN “is and has been a criminal machine of kidnappings and attacks” and requested the communist Castro regime detain the ELN leadership that was on the island at the time. The Castro regime did not arrest the ELN members and instead sheltered them until the start of the peace talks in November 2022.
As a prelude to the start of the peace talks in Venezuela, Colombia, suspended its capture orders against ELN leadership members four days before the start of negotiations. The suspension of the capture orders allowed for ELN member Violeta Arango Ramírez, known as “Alias Violeta,” to be released after being arrested earlier in the year.
“Violeta,” who is now currently in Venezuela participating in the negotiating table, was implicated in the terrorist attack against Colombia’s Andino Shopping Mall in 2017, where three Colombian citizens were killed and nine were left injured.
In response to the comments regarding “Violeta’s” presence at the negotiating table, Colombian Peace Commissioner Danilo Rueda said on Monday that her release was a concession by President Petro “to provide signs of confidence that are never a denial of the rule of law.”
“The decision to release Violeta is part of the agreements with the ELN, based on good faith and commitment,” Rueda said.
Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro celebrated the start of the peace talks between the Colombian government and the communist terrorists.
“The hour of peace has arrived. Here is the hand of the people of Venezuela to tell President Gustavo Petro and Colombia to count on us for total peace,” Maduro said on Monday during an official event broadcasted by the regime’s VTV television channel.
A report published in 2018 detailed how the Maduro regime allowed ELN to freely operate within Venezuelan territory with the support of the socialist nation’s armed forces — going as far as to let ELN become involved in the Maduro regime’s food distribution programs in the state of Táchira and allowing them to operate their own checkpoint radio stations.
Pablo Beltrán, member of ELN’s leadership and head of the negotiating team for the group, said on Monday, “We cannot see each other as enemies, the labor we have is of reconciliation.”
Following the first meeting held on Monday, both sides released a joint statement titled “Peace is our dream, change is our path,” in which both Colombia’s Peace delegation and ELN’s dialogue delegations express their intention to resume peace talks “with full political and ethical will.”
Eugenio Martínez Enriquez, director of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Castro regime’s foreign affairs ministry, announced via Twitter that he is in Venezuela as guarantor of the peace talks.
According to the Colombian government, the peace talks will rotate between Venezuela, Cuba, and Norway as guarantor countries.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.