LatinNews Daily - 16 March 2018

Colombia: Representatives from the Colombian government and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) guerrillas have announced that they have formally opened a new peace dialogue round. The new round of the peace dialogue being staged in Quito, Ecuador, comes after Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos decided to resume the talks he had suspended back in January after the ELN ended a bilateral ceasefire and launched a series of armed attacks in Colombia. However, after the ELN called a unilateral ceasefire during Colombia’s 11 March national legislative elections, Santos agreed to resume the Quito dialogue to try to find “complete peace in Colombia”. Speaking to journalists in Quito, Gustavo Bell, the head of the Colombian government’s negotiating team, said that the two sides have agreed that the new dialogue round will be extended until 18 May, just nine days before Colombia’s presidential election, and that they will focus on agreeing a new bilateral ceasefire.

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