Guayaquil, June 13 (RHC)-- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa revealed on Thursday that a dialog between the Colombian government and that country’s National Liberation Army (ELN) got underway two months ago in the northern Ecuadorian province of Imbabura.

For several weeks now, and due to obvious reasons, talks between the Colombian government and the ELN guerrillas have been held in a very confidential way in Ecuador, said Correa during a press conference in the port city of Guayaquil.

The head of state, who reiterated his government’s willingness to offer all necessary guarantees to the bilateral dialog, noted that this has been the beginning of peace talks with the second largest guerrilla group in Colombia.

The Colombian authorities and the ELN guerrillas issued a joint communiqué earlier this week in Bogota announcing the beginning of an exploratory stage with talks aimed at a possible peace accord.

The government led by President Juan Manuel Santos also maintains peace talks since November 2012 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces-People’s Army guerrillas in Havana, which have advanced an agenda towards a possible peace accord for Colombia and find an end to the armed conflict that has prevailed in the country for the past 50 years.