Colombia Wants to Live in Peace, ELN Guerrilla Leader Says

Aureliano Carbonell told the Russian agency Sputnik that the Colombian people want to live in peace and want changes in society

Colombian guerrilla commander Aureliano Carbonell, leader of the National Liberation Army (ELN), told the Russian agency Sputnik that the Colombian people want to live in peace and want changes in society.

For the member of the National Directorate of the ELN, peace and transformations are ‘the two main causes of many sectors of the Colombian society, but the established oligarchies cling to maintain their privileges and that is where the main difficulty lies at this moment.’

Carbonell, who is also a member of the guerrilla negotiating delegation at the roundtable discussions with the Colombian government, insisted that the ELN has reaffirmed for two years its decision to work for a political solution to the armed conflict the South American nation has been suffered more than 50 years ago, and ‘we have been working in that sense.’

He explained that the representatives of the ELN are in Havana since May for the sixth cycle of these talks, which ended on August 1 without reaching agreements.

‘Now we will have to wait for the regulation of the new Colombian government, to be led by President Ivan Duque as of today, to maintain the talks,’ Carbonell said.

Carbonell told Sputnik that there is a significant pressure from the international community so the peace process continues, and the pressure of many sectors of Colombian society is increasing.

The sixth cycle of negotiations ended last week without concrete agreements being reached, particularly for reaching a bilateral ceasefire, the main purpose.