ELN leader calls for peace talks to pick up where they left off with Juan Manuel Santos

The first commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, Antonio Garcia, has defended this Monday to resume through a “joint” peace negotiations where they left off with the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos.

“Very surely we will have to contextualize what was agreed at that time, because we also have to make a kind of splice. Does the new government have with whom to make that splice? We understand that the Duque government was very reluctant to receive its predecessor,” García said in a message posted on his Twitter account.

In any case, Garcia has stressed that it is “important” that there are “expectations for peace in Colombia.” “Both the new government and the ELN have expressed willingness and mutual interest to resume talks,” he said in reference to the inauguration next Sunday of the new Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.

In addition, Garcia has bet on “reducing the use of the microphone and working more to resume the talks at a table, which cannot be done until the new government is not in office”.

Shortly after, Garcia has published a new message in which he has assured that “of course our will for peace is real.” “It was not us who suspended the talks. After losing four years we have to resume. It is a debt of (Iván) Duque with history,” he said in reference to the outgoing president.