The national government chief negotiator with Colombia’s ELN guerrillas, Juan Camilo Restrepo, announced to resign on Monday, six months after talks started in Quito, Ecuador.
The businessman, former minister and prominent Conservative Party member unexpectedly told Caracol Radio on Monday he had presented his resignation letter to President Juan Manuel Santos.
The chief negotiator said he wants to prioritize his business interests in the first quarter of next year and will leave in the beginning of January, around the time a ceasefire with the Marxist rebels ends.
I believe that personally, my cycle in front of the negotiating team with the ELN is closing.
Juan Camilo Restrepo
Restrepo had been involved in the talks since October 2016 and had made the final negotiations that allowed the formalization of talks and a bilateral ceasefire.
I will leave the position for personal reasons that need my attention. I asked the president to release me from the responsibility and that will be given at the beginning of 2018. The exact date has not been agreed, nor who will be my replacement, although it could be someone from the negotiating team.
Juan Camilo Restrepo
The talks have been under pressure for failing to produce substantial agreements, and ongoing violence against civilians by both guerrillas and security forces.
The ELN, together with the now-demobilized FARC, took up arms in 1964 in order to overthrow the state.
The FARC agreed to peace last year and has been involved in a peace process.
Agreement with the much smaller ELN would remove the last of traditional illegal armed actors from the armed conflict of more than half a century.
