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January 23rd, 2018 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has ordered a new ceasefire with the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) and ordered the government’s chief negotiator to return to Ecuador to negotiate a new ceasefire.
The Santos administration’s chief negotiator, Gustavo Bell, has returned to Colombia earlier this month after the previous ceasefire between the government and the ELN expired. Following the failure of the parties to reach a new ceasefire agreement, hostilities resumed. International pressure and – plausibly – the will to peace and the recognition that none of the parties can win a military victory – has prompted the parties to resume negotiations. Bell had been called back to Bogota by Santos after the ELN launched a series of attacks against infrastructure.
Santos announced he agreed to seek a new ceasefire after demanding the guerrillas cease all hostilities. “In response to the call of the United Nations, Gustavo Bell will travel to Quito to explore the possibility of a new ceasefire that allows the continuation of talks with the ELN,” he stated. On his return, Bell was scheduled to meet with representatives of the ELN and guarantor countries that have been accompanying the talks that began in February last year.
While initially rejecting the possibility of a ceasefire during the talks, Santos has now reversed his position and rejects the possibility of peace talks without a ceasefire. The first bilateral ceasefire between the State and the ELN was reached in October 2017 during the visit of Pope Francis to Colombia. The government and the ELN have been at war with each other since the formation of the National Liberation Army in 1964. The civil war in Colombia is the longest ongoing civil war in Latin America.
CH/L – nsnbc 23.01.2018
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2018/01/23/87573/
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