The presidents of Chile and Colombia want to relaunch the Andean Community and Celac. Aug. 8, 2022 | Photo: Twitter/@Agencia_Andina

Bogota, August 9 (RHC)-- Chile will be a guarantor of the peace process that the government of Gustavo Petro will resume with the rebel forces of the National Liberation Army (ELN), President Gabriel Boric announced Monday in Bogota, after a meeting with the recently inaugurated president of Colombia at the Casa de Nariño.

"We have expressed all our willingness to continue collaborating in the terms that the Colombian government deems most useful to its cause," Boric said at a press conference.

For now, he added, "this is limited (...) to being one of the guarantor countries of the process to the extent that this is resumed, which was at a standstill."  The proposal to facilitate the talks was made by Boric to the now Colombian vice-president, Francia Márquez, during a meeting in Santiago, before the swearing-in of the new Colombian government.

Petro recalled that in the talks with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC.EP), which culminated in an agreement in 2016, as well as in the interrupted dialogue with the ELN, Chile served as a guarantor. "We hope to continue to be a guarantor country in those peace processes that are about to restart," Petro said.

Petro held Monday the first bilateral meeting with his Chilean counterpart, thus inaugurating his agenda as Head of State after being sworn in on Sunday.  "We have had a pleasant and deep conversation, in which I am infinitely happy to see how the Latin American heart begins to beat together again," said the Chilean president in a joint statement to the press after the meeting.

Regarding this negotiation process, the Colombian president added that it is also pending to be defined if Havana will host the negotiations again.

Petro, in his first appearance before the media after being sworn in as president, said that he will resume the dialogues with the ELN at the point where they were left when the administration of Iván Duque stopped them four years ago.  Now they are looking to see if the guarantor countries of the process, among which are Chile, Ecuador, and Norway, want to continue being guarantors and "revitalize the protocols" that were signed.

And it will also be known "in the weeks that are to follow if these dialogues continue in Cuba," said Petro, who recalled that the ELN negotiators are still there, so if the geographic site changes, "it does not depend exclusively on us (...) it depends on the conditions of those who want to negotiate with us."