Colombian leftist guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) is open to advancing peace talks with the incoming government of President-elect Gustavo Petro, it said on Monday, and called for reforms to tackle social exclusion and inequality.
Leftist Petro and his vice president-elect, Francia Marquez, won 50.4% of the vote in Sunday's election.
The incoming president, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, has called for a rapid negotiation with the ELN, and has also suggested applying the 2016 peace deal with the demobilized FARC to those combatants who reject the agreement and formed dissident groups. Peace talks between previous governments and the ELN -- which is accused of financing itself with kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal mining -- did not advance due to the group's radical positions, a diffuse chain of command and dissent in its ranks.
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