Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Saturday the conclusion of an agreement between his government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) to return indigenous refugees displaced in the west of the country, the first since peace talks began between Bogotá and the guerrilla group. , AFP notes.

President of Colombia Gustavo PetroPhoto: Lafargue Raphael/ABACA / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

“The first point of agreement we reached with the ELN, just a week after the start of negotiations, is to allow some peoples displaced by this organization” to their lands, the leftist president said during an official rally in Dabeiba (northwest).

He did not specify a date for the return of these communities, who fled the territories they legally occupied in the regions of Choco (northwest) and Risaralda (center-west), due to violence between drug traffickers, paramilitary groups and guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN), the latter recognized guerilla in Colombia.

Talks with the ELN, suspended in 2019 by the previous government in response to an attack that killed 22 people, were resumed by President Petro, the first leftist president in Colombia’s history, who came to power in August.

Representatives of the government and the ELN began these new discussions on November 21 in Venezuela.

The deal should benefit the community, which has occupied various parks in the capital Bogotá since late 2020 in protest, leading to violent clashes with police.

The government and ELN failed to reach a ceasefire agreement, but agreed in October to “restore all agreements and progress made since the signing of the agenda” on March 30, 2016. In recent weeks, the two sides have offered more “signs of confidence” to each other, particularly with the release of prisoners or scaling back of field operations.

After the end of the negotiations, the number of ELN, according to official estimates, increased from 1,800 to 2,500 members.

Founded in 1964 by trade unionists and students sympathetic to Ernesto “Che” Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, the ELN is currently the last guerrilla group still active in Colombia, while the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace deal in 2016.