BOGOTA, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's high commissioner for peace, Miguel Ceballos, on Thursday said the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group lacked the will to formally begin peace talks with the government of President Ivan Duque.
Ceballos also accused the guerrillas of continuing to carry out kidnappings and other illicit activities.
"We understand that the government of (ex-President Juan Manuel) Santos carried out exploratory talks (with the ELN), but we don't want to explore. We want to seek full and real peace, and a stop to the blocking of the implementation of the (peace) agreements with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)," Ceballos said in an interview with RCN Radio.
According to Ceballos, on March 29, before a temporary truce took effect due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the ELN "kidnapped" two former police officers, who remain missing.
"This behaviour does not allow for peace," he said.
The government put preliminary talks towards a peace deal on hold after the rebels detonated a car bomb in January 2019 at a police academy in Bogota, killing 22 people.
Duque's government says the guerrillas must renounce violence and release all captives before the two sides can sit down to negotiate.
While in office, Santos reached a peace agreement with the FARC, but the full implementation of the deal fell to his successor. Enditem
