Meetings between the ELN and the Government of Colombia continue in Quito

The meetings between the delegates of the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army were held on Monday for the fourth consecutive day and in a relaxed atmosphere, that guerrilla reported.

The ELN published on its Twitter account that “the two delegations and the guarantors are united in a good working environment.”

The meetings, which seek to establish the basis for future negotiations aimed at negotiating a final peace, as the government did with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), are held in secret in northern Ecuador.

Initially, both sides had agreed to start public talks on October 10, but Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos did not send his representatives at the last minute after the guerrilla refused to release former congressman Odin Sanchez. The ELN, for its part, accused the government of not pardoning two detained guerrilla fighters.