Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday gave his full backing to Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s peace plan geared toward reaching a cease-fire with the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN) guerrilla group.
Talking after talks with Petro, who’s on a state go to to Spain, Sánchez stated he had conveyed Spain’s dedication “to help his bold plan and brave venture for whole peace” in Colombia.
Spain is a 3rd occasion in Colombia’s ongoing talks with the ELN, a communist-inspired army power that remained energetic after the dissolution in 2017 of the FARC, a bigger group that spent a long time in battle with the federal government.
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Colombia and the ELN began talks in November, shortly after Petro, an ex-rebel, was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president.
Petro has known as the talks a cornerstone of his effort to resolve a battle that dates again to the Nineteen Sixties.
Final week, ELN militants killed 9 Colombian troopers in an assault, complicating negotiations. Talks restarted in Havana on Tuesday.
Petro stated that relying fully on how the talks go and what progress is made in establishing a long-lasting cease-fire, Spain would possibly be capable to assist persuade the European Union to think about taking the ELN off the terrorist lists.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, left, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez end a information convention in Madrid, Spain, on Might 4, 2023. Sánchez has given his full backing to Petro’s peace plan. (AP Photograph/Paul White)
He stated this might assist the ELN to “purchase a genuinely political standing, clearly sustaining an increasing number of safe negotiations in the direction of the definitive abandonment of violence.”
Sánchez, a Socialist, stated the 2 additionally mentioned the summit between the EU and Latin American international locations in July in Brussels.
The summit will come within the early days of Spain taking cost of the EU’s rotating presidency, a six-month interval by which Madrid goals to revitalize Europe’s relations with Latin America.
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Petro stated it was essential that the summit “shouldn’t be only one extra assembly, however somewhat a milestone, a change of section within the financial and political relations between the 2 areas.”
Spain and Colombia additionally signed a collection of accords in areas together with rail infrastructure, aeronautics, digital connectivity, crime cooperation and training throughout the go to.
Sánchez stated Spain would make $1.1 billion out there for financing initiatives involving Spanish firms in Colombia.
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The 2 additionally mentioned the necessity to step up the worldwide struggle in opposition to local weather change. Sánchez stated the battle was “a precedence for each governments” and welcomed Colombia’s resolution to affix the Worldwide Drought Resilience Alliance.
The alliance, promoted by Spain and Senegal within the COP27 assembly final November in Egypt, now has greater than 30 nation members and works towards shifting from crises administration to drought preparedness.
Spain is in the course of a protracted drought after a record-hot 2022.
