Colombia government says it will not unilaterally end ELN peace talks

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia's government will not unilaterally end peace talks with rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), its peace delegation said on Thursday, even though a ceasefire between the two sides expired earlier this month.

Vera Grabe, head of the government's delegation, and Senator Ivan Cepeda, said it was up to the rebel group to make decisions about the future of the talks, which restarted in late 2022 under leftist President Gustavo Petro's total peace policy.

"The purpose of this government is to complete the peace process with the National Liberation Army. We're not going to be the ones to take the step of breaking off the negotiations," Cepeda said at a press conference in Bogota.

ELN top commander Antonio Garcia posted a statement from the group on X on Thursday that said the peace talks were in "crisis" and the rebel group needed "to know if the government would keep its word" and uphold a future deal.

It added that peace talks could resume if the government removed ELN from its list of organized armed groups later this month.

Colombia's six decades of conflict have left more than 450,000 people dead, and the government hopes to negotiate an end to ELN's role in the violence.

A six-month ceasefire between the two sides expired this month, and Colombia's government has said military operations against the rebel group would restart.

The ELN has said it would not attack the military, but warned it would defend itself as needed.

After six rounds of talks, the negotiations hit a crisis when the government met separately in May with an ELN faction in Narino province to negotiate its handover of weapons and reintegration into society.

ELN central leadership said the move undermined the larger peace talks.

In its statement on Thursday, the group called for a "technical extension" of the ceasefire through Aug. 23 to enable the government to delist ELN as an organized armed group, a step it said was due more than a year ago. After that, peace talks could resume, the ELN said.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Rod Nickel and Cynthia Osterman)