The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvacongratulated this Saturday Colombia and his counterpart from the Andean country, Gustavo Petro, for the “fundamental” step in the construction of peace after the agreement with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN).
“I congratulate Colombia, in particular President Gustavo Petro, for the ceasefire agreement with the ELN. A fundamental step in the construction of peace for the Latin American peoples and in a reaffirmation of the vocation for peace in South America,” he wrote. Lula on his Twitter account.
The president thus complemented the message from the Brazilian government, which on Friday through the Foreign Ministry expressed its “satisfaction” for the “national”, “bilateral” and “temporary” ceasefire agreed this Friday by the Colombian authorities and the ELN .
The ceasefire will start on August 3 and will initially last for 180 days, as a result of the third cycle of negotiations between the two parties, held between May 2 and 9 in Havana (Cuba).
“As one of the guarantor countries of the process, Brazil expresses its confidence that the agreements reached represent a vigorous impulse in the direction of sustainable peace in Colombia,” added the statement, in which the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed its commitment to peace negotiations in the neighboring country.
The 180-day ceasefire, the longest that the government and the ELN have agreed to so far, was signed today in Havana in an act that was attended by President Petro and the first commander of the ELN, Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, aka “Antonio Garcia”.
The parties also agreed that the United Nations and the Catholic Church will monitor compliance with the ceasefire through follow-up meetings every two months.