Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos has announced he is ready to begin peace talks with the leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army or ELN for short. Santos made the decision to begin peace talks with the ELN after the group released a Canadian hostage they had held prisoner for seven-months. In November 2012 Santos began peace talks with another rebel group in Colombia the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC. The peace process with FARC has been slow and tension filled but neither the government nor the rebel group is ready to cease peace negotiation.
"Hopefully we can work out the necessary procedures to start dialogue with the ELN to see if once and for all we can put an end to this conflict with the two groups involved in it," Yahoo News reports President Santos saying from the presidential palace. Santos wants the peace talks to begin as soon as possible but the government is not willing to negotiate until all ELN hostages are released. Santos called the release of the Canadian hostage "a gesture that I celebrate and appreciate."
The Colombian Constitutional Court passed a law that altered the constitution and stated rebels can "receive reduced or suspended prison sentences if they lay down their weapons." The Court believed this law, called the Legal Framework for Peace, would encourage rebels to turn themselves in and end the violence. Some have criticized the law saying it is going to allow rebels that commit the most serious crimes (rape, murder, bombings) to escape justice. The top judge in the court countered that argument by saying the ruling would not allow war crimes to go "unpunished."
The ELN is a smaller counterpart to FARC. The ELN has between 2,000 and 3,000 members. The ELN began fighting the Colombian government in 1964. The rebel group began under the leadership of a group of Catholic priests that became radicalized and tried to violently overthrow their government. The United States and the European Union considers both ELN and FARC terrorist organizations. The talks with FARC are going slow and Santos is under pressure to begin a dialogue with the ELN. Santos must make a decision about running for reelection this November. If he declines to run the peace talks could remain in Limbo.
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