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Colombia's security forces to remain vigilant during peace talks

Xinhua, March 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Colombia's security forces will remain vigilant while the government is engaged in peace talks with the country's second largest rebel group for a definitive end to a half-century-old conflict, the defense minister said on Wednesday.

Although the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) agreed to hold peace negotiations, the security forces will remain on a high alert throughout the country to ensure the safety of Colombians, Luis Carlos Villegas said in a statement.

The government and the ELN "have agreed to set up public talks in order to sign a final deal to end the armed conflict and agree on changes in search of peace and equity," President Juan Manuel Santos' chief negotiator Frank Pearl and ELN commander Antonio Garcia announced early Wednesday in a joint statement after meeting in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

The ELN has existed in Colombia since 1964. It is a leftist group like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group.

The government began peace talks with the FARC in Havana, Cuba in November 2012. Both sides pledged to continue working for a peace deal after they missed their self-imposed March 23 deadline.

Peace talks with these two guerrilla groups are seeking to end the five-decade-long conflict in the Latin American country. Endi