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Soriek  6mo ago (text post)   1131 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 25

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum lives in or might be interested in. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Colombia

Ostensibly the revolutionary group ELN is in a ceasefire with the government and in negotiations for a peace treaty. However, last month put some doubt as to the progress of the talks:

At least 40% of fighters from Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels could reject a potential peace deal being negotiated with the government, three high-level security sources told Reuters, citing reluctance to surrender profits from drug smuggling and illegal mining.

Recently their attacks have flared back up, most noticeably by kidnapping the father of Liverpool footballer Luis Díaz, creating a hideous PR situation for President Gustavo Petro.

Unfortunately, in the same week the leftist revolutionary group EMC, a splinter of the more famous FARC, has now ended its peace talks with the Petro Administration. The reasons why are a little unclear:

The negotiation, which began on October 16 in the city of Tibu in the country's northeast, was suspended because, according to the guerrillas, "the State has totally failed to comply" with its commitments. However, the holdouts did not specify what these pledges were.

All this is a shame because negotiating an end to the conflicts with revolutionary groups has been one of the few areas Petro has been having significant success in. The EMC have at least said they will honor the standing ceasefire until it ends in the new year.

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