BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia’s government has called off peace talks with leftist rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN), its peace delegation said on Wednesday, following an attack which killed two soldiers and injured more than two dozen.
The decision is another devastating blow to President Gustavo Petro’s cornerstone total peace policy, which looked to remove the ELN from its role in the Andean country’s six-decades of internal armed conflict.
“Today the peace process is on hold. Its viability is severely diminished and its continuation can only go ahead with an unequivocal demonstration of peace by the ELN,” the government peace delegation said in a post on X.
The government restarted negotiations with the ELN at the end of 2022 and held six rounds of talks with the rebel group in Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela.
The attack which caused the talks to be suspended took place on Tuesday in a rural area of Colombia’s Arauca province, which borders Venezuela.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime AcostaWriting by Oliver Griffin)
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