Colombia remains open to dialogue with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels despite their recent offensive in the country's east, peace commissioner Otty Patino said, as the Colombian government moves ahead with a separate process with some 300 fighters who split from the group.
The government of President Gustavo Petro suspended peace talks with the ELN in January, after the rebels launched a series of attacks in the Catatumbo region, along the border with Venezuela, causing around 100 deaths and displacing some 56,000 people.
The suspension was the biggest blow yet to promises by Petro, himself a former member of the M-19 urban guerrillas, to end more than 60 years of conflict in Colombia, where several major armed groups have splintered into smaller factions, complicating dialogue.
"The government has left the door open, but it won't mean a dialogue per se, it means the ELN will change direction, change its way of thinking, change the way they are directing their criminal strategy and it would mean a very radical transformation from now on," Patino told Reuters.
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