The Colombian government and the ELN are in talks about the possibility of the country’s second largest rebel group joining peace talks with the FARC due in Norway this week, said conflict analyst Leon Valencia Sunday.
According to radio station Caracol, Valencia — himself a former guerrilla — said the government and rebels are exploring possibilities that representatives of the ELN join the FARC to negotiate an end to the country’s nearly half a century armed conflict.
Valencia told Caracol that an ELN delegate already is in the Norwegian capital of Oslo to observe how the talks are going.
The FARC and the government in August officially announced to be holding peace talks. The ELN subsequently expressed its interest to join these peace talks, but under conditions not agreed upon between the administration of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC.
Both the FARC and ELN have been fighting the Colombian state since 1964.