Bogotá.- The president of Colombia, Ivan Duque, said that 'until the premise of freeing all hostages is fulfilled' the government will not designate "anyone to have any kind of approach."

During his inauguration speech on August 7, Duque stated that the peace process with the ELN would be subject to a rigorous study and recently imposed a series of conditions on the insurgency to continue the process.

Among the demands of the executive are the concentration of the guerrilla units in a certain zone and with international verification, the cessation of criminal activities, including the release of all hostages, and agreeing on a precise time in which the dialogues will take place.

For its part, the ELN assured in a statement published on Twitter that it will fulfill its promise to carry out the releases unilaterally, despite the Colombian president's decision not to resume the talks for the time being.

Last Wednesday, three soldiers captured on August 8 in the department of Arauca were released, but the whereabouts of six other people, including civilians and police uniformed, detained on August 3 in Choco are still unknown.

The leadership of the insurgent organization called on guarantor countries and the support and cooperation group, the United Nations and the Catholic Church to accompany the release operations.

The peace process between the ELN and the previous administration of President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) began in Quito in February last year, and negotiations moved to Havana a few months ago. (PL)

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