Colombian President Suspends Arrest Warrants For Chief ELN Negotiators

BOGOTA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st August, 2022) Colombian President Gustavo Petro has suspended arrest warrants for chief negotiators of the radical left-wing armed group National Liberation Army (ELN).

"I want to announce that, by decree, signed yesterday, I have authorized the reinstatement of the protocols, allowing negotiators to reconnect with their organization, suspending arrest warrants for those negotiators, suspending extradition orders for those negotiators so that the dialogue with the ELN can be restored," Petro said after a security council meeting in the municipality of San Pablo on Saturday.

He urged all military groups in Colombia, as well as those involved in drug trafficking, to follow the path of peace and dialogue with the government.

Petro, 62, took the presidential oath and was sworn in in a ceremony at Bolivar Square in Colombia's capital, Bogota, earlier in August. A former guerrilla and ex-mayor of Bogota, he is the first leftist leader in Colombia's modern history.

Petro's government has agreed to hold talks with the largest drug gang in Colombia, the Gulf Clan (Clan del Golfo, also known as Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), a major supplier of cocaine to the United States. As a gesture of goodwill to the new government of Colombia and determination to join the peace process, the Gulf Clan has announced a unilateral cessation of offensive hostilities.