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Nine Colombian soldiers die in guerrilla attack amid peace talks

Nine Colombian soldiers were killed in an attack by National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas near Colombia’s border with Venezuela this Wednesday (29), putting peace talks between the rebel group and the government at risk.

The attack, one of the most serious in recent months, took place in the rural area of ​​the municipality of El Carmen, in the Colombian province of Norte de Santander, an important region for growing coca and producing cocaine.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro’s government restarted peace talks with the ELN last year as part of a campaign for total peace in the Andean country, where nearly six decades of internal conflict have left at least 450,000 dead.

Petro called a meeting with the government’s peace delegation, as well as the guarantor countries, which include Venezuela, Mexico and Chile, among others, he said on Twitter.

“A peace process must be serious and accountable to Colombian society,” Petro said in the publication.

The government and ELN concluded a first round of peace talks in Venezuela’s capital Caracas in late 2022. A second round of peace talks began in Mexico this year.

The ELN did not immediately comment on the attack or on Petro’s decision to speak with Colombia’s peace delegation and the guarantor countries.

The ELN is Colombia’s oldest rebel group, founded by radical Catholic priests in 1964, and the talks are the cornerstone of efforts by Petro — himself a former member of another insurgent group — to bring “total peace” to Colombia.

Source: CNN Brasil

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