Correa says preliminary peace talks with ELN took place in Ecuador

Correa says preliminary peace talks with ELN took place in Ecuador
Jun 10, 2014 posted by Adriaan Alsema

Ecuador President Rafael Correa said Tuesday that his country has hosted preliminary negotiations and hopes to host formal peace talks between Colombia’s government and the country’s second largest rebel group, the ELN.

Following the official announcement of the talks by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Correa told reporters in the southwestern Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil that “a few months ago, extremely confidential for obvious reasons, conversations between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) took place.”

Correa’s Colombian counterpart announced the talks earlier Tuesday, only five days before presidential elections are held in which the incumbent faces staunch opposition from hard-line candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga who has been one of the fiercest critic of ongoing peace talks with the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group.

Santos said that an “exploratory” phase of talks had been underway with the ELN since January 2014, after a series of individual meetings between government representatives and rebels in 2013.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/ecuador-says-preliminary-peace-talks-eln-took-place-ecuador/