Colombia formalizes peace talks with rebels

Insurgent group is classified as terrorist by United States

CARACAS, VENEZUELA— Colombia will hold peace talks with the country’s second-largest rebel group, heightening expectations for a definitive end to a half-century of political violence in the Andean nation.

The government has held exploratory talks in Ecuador with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, for more than a year. Negotiators for the two sides announced Wednesday at a press conference in Caracas that those talks will now be formalized.

The government has been negotiating for three years in Havana with the largest Colombian rebel group, the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The smaller ELN, which the U.S. government classifies as a terrorist group, has an estimated fighting force of around 1,500 and relies on extortion and kidnapping to fund its insurgency. The group recently freed two hostages, a precondition of formalizing talks.

The group, founded by radical Catholic priests, has long prided itself on being more ideologically pure than the FARC. Unlike the peasant-based FARC, the ELN shares a tradition with other leftist insurgencies in Latin America that were formed by urban students and intellectuals in the wake of the Cuban Revolution.

But many analysts say the same orthodoxy that led it to shun a heavier involvement in the drug trade also blinded commanders to the opportunity to negotiate a far-reaching deal. In recent weeks, the group kidnapped a local councilman and captured an army sergeant, actions that led Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to warn the group was at risk of missing the “peace train.”