International

Colombia resumes talks with powerful ELN guerrilla group

Photo: Yuri Cortez / AFP

| By AFP |

Colombia’s government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last recognized rebel group in the country, resumed formal peace talks in Venezuela Monday for the first time since they were suspended in 2019.

The talks are a push by President Gustavo Petro, who in August became Colombia’s first-ever leftist leader, and has vowed a less bellicose approach to ending violence wrought by armed groups, including leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers.

In their first meeting, the parties agreed to “resume the dialogue process with full political and ethical will,” according to a joint statement.

They added that the talks aim to “build peace” and make “tangible, urgent, and necessary” changes, highlighting the need for “permanent compromises.”

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The first round of talks will last 20 days.

Colombia has suffered more than half a century of armed conflict between the state and various groups of left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

The ELN started as a leftist ideological movement in 1964 before turning to crime, focusing on kidnapping, extortion, attacks and drug trafficking in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela.

It has around 2,500 members, about 700 more than it did when negotiations were last broken off. The group is primarily active in the Pacific region and along the 2,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) border with Venezuela.

Dialogue with the group started in 2016 under ex-president Juan Manuel Santos, who signed a peace treaty with the larger Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group that subsequently abandoned its weapons and created a political party.

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But the talks with the ELN were called off in 2019 by conservative former president Ivan Duque following a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogota that left 22 people dead.

Petro — himself a former guerrilla — reached out to the ELN shortly after coming to power, as part of his “total peace” policy.

The ELN peace talks delegation spent four years based in Cuba, as they had been barred from returning to Colombia by the previous government.

They traveled to Venezuela last month, where the fresh round of talks was announced.

Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez warned that the negotiations do not imply a “suspension of operations” against the ELN.

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“If there is an encounter with someone who has an arrest warrant, they must be captured… There is no ceasefire,” he said.

‘We all have to change’

Colombian peace commissioner Ivan Danilo Rueda hailed a “historic moment” for the country after the meeting.

“We are here honoring life, the lives of so many beings who are no longer here,” Rueda said. “Murdered, disappeared.”

ELN delegate Pablo Beltran said he hoped the dialogue would be “an instrument of change… and we hope we won’t fail.”

“In Colombia, we all have to change” and “overcome the dynamic of death,” he said.

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Caracas is hosting the first meeting, and the talks will rotate between the other guarantors Cuba and Norway.

A statement from the guarantor nations said Monday’s meeting was “an important step to achieve peace.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres’s special envoy in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, called on “the parties and Colombian society to take advantage of this historic opportunity.”

“I reiterate the support of the Secretary General @antonioguterres to this process,” he wrote on Twitter.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro hailed the process as “a message of hope for a peaceful Latin America and Caribbean,” at a rally in the capital.

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International

White House says Cuba policy unchanged despite sanctioned fuel shipment

The White House said Monday that it has not changed its policy toward Cuba, despite allowing a sanctioned Russian oil tanker to deliver fuel to the island on humanitarian grounds.

U.S. officials emphasized that the decision was made as an exception and does not signal a broader shift in policy.

The administration added that similar decisions would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, depending on humanitarian considerations.

The clarification comes amid ongoing restrictions related to U.S. sanctions policy, which continue to limit trade and financial flows involving Cuba.

International

Spain to grant citizenship to Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López

The Spanish government is expected to grant citizenship this Tuesday to Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lópezthrough an extraordinary procedure known as “carta de naturaleza.”

The decision will be approved by royal decree, an exceptional legal mechanism used in special cases that require expedited resolution due to specific circumstances.

López has been living in Madrid since 2020, after leaving Venezuela following a prolonged political and legal conflict with the government of Nicolás Maduro.

According to government sources, López currently does not have a valid Venezuelan passport and faces difficulties in having his nationality fully recognized in his home country.

As a result, he applied for Spanish citizenship via a fast-track process at the end of 2025, after previously attempting to obtain it through regular procedures.

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The Spanish government justified the move based on López’s international relevance and foreign policy considerations.

López is the leader of the Voluntad Popular party and co-founder of the World Liberty Congress, an initiative launched in 2022 alongside figures such as Garry Kasparov and Masih Alinejad.

International

ICE to remain at airports amid DHS shutdown, Homan says

The U.S. “border czar,” Tom Homan, said Sunday that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will remain deployed at airports until operations return to “100% normal,” as the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues.

“We will maintain ICE presence until airports feel they are fully back to normal operations,” Homan said during an interview on Face the Nation on CBS.

Homan justified the deployment on security grounds, noting that the measure was ordered by President Donald Trumpamid widespread absenteeism among agents of the Transportation Security Administration, who have gone without pay for over six weeks due to the DHS shutdown.

According to acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, at least 460 TSA agents have resigned during the shutdown, while daily absenteeism has averaged 11%, exceeding 50% at some airports.

Homan warned that if TSA staffing levels do not recover after the shutdown, ICE agents will continue filling the gap. “ICE is there to support our TSA brothers and sisters. We will remain as long as needed to ensure airport security,” he said.

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The DHS shutdown reached 44 days on Sunday, making it the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The impasse stems from disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over ICE funding.

A recent bipartisan Senate proposal to fund DHS without including ICE failed after being blocked by House Republicans, who insist on full funding for the agency.

Amid the deadlock, Trump signed an executive order directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to immediately pay TSA agents to address what he called an “emergency situation” and restore order at airports, with payments expected to begin Monday.