Mexico City, February 12. The Mexican government is seeking to strengthen its role in Latin America by hosting the next round of negotiations between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian government on Monday, although there is a risk that the dialogues will stagnate like those in Venezuela.
As host of the talks between the guerrillas and the government, which wants a bilateral ceasefire, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador intends “to recover Mexico’s belonging in the region”, Jacaranda Guillén told EFE, researcher at the Center for International Studies. Senate Bosques.
“This reflects a deepening of the policy towards the region. Let’s remember that once President López Obrador takes power, attention to the region is one of his foreign policy priorities,” said Guillén, also a member of the Mexican Association for International Studies. (AMEI).
MEDIATION IN A COMPLEX NEGOTIATION
Negotiations between the Colombian government and the ELN, interrupted for four years after starting in 2017, resumed on November 22 in Caracas under the aegis of Cuba, Norway and Venezuela as guarantors.
The government of Gustavo Petro wants to agree on a bilateral ceasefire with the ELN and, for this reason, the president announced on December 31 the entry into force of this measure, but the guerrillas denied it a few days later, arguing that it had not been done. .. agreed during the talks.
Although Mexico “does not play an active role” in the process, which aims to end the armed conflict that Colombia has been experiencing since the 1960s, “it will facilitate their reception and assistance” and “help in everything that is needed,” according to the Chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard.
“Somos una sede confiable, es parte de la medición. Nuestra participación is limited to proporcionar las condiciones para que pueda haber un diálogo, facilitar que estén instalados, que puedan dialogar, garantie su seguridad, y nada más”, respondió a pregunta de EFE this week.
Despite the intentions, there is a risk that the dialogue will stagnate in Mexico, as happened with the negotiations between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition which began in August 2021 in Mexico City, but three months later , they have been interrupted until November 2022. .
Still, that doesn’t mean Mexico’s reputation is in jeopardy, says José Joel Peña, a foreign policy professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
“It shouldn’t be like this, at the end of the day, Mexico only welcomes dialogues in favor of peace and it is up to the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army to ensure that agreements are reached and translated. into concrete actions,” he explained.
THE ROLE OF MEXICO IN THE REGION
In addition to the dialogues in Colombia and Venezuela, in 1983 Mexico hosted the Contadora Group to promote peace in Central America, in 1990 the negotiations of the peace agreement in Guatemala and in 1992 the signing of the agreement between the government of El Salvador and the guerrillas, remembers Guillén.
For this reason, “for Mexico, as a country or as an international actor, (hosting the dialogues on Colombia) is a recognition of this trajectory or of these exercises that it had already carried out and a strengthening of the confidence that the region had in Mexico,” he said. the searcher.
The conversations, he added, also reflect the good relationship and affinity between López Obrador and Petro, who addressed the issue during his visit to Mexico last November.
While Peña argued that they are “a way to demonstrate that Mexico is a neutral country that somehow seeks Latin American integration.”
Although, the professor clarified, “it is also true that there are those who argue that this is a strategy of President López Obrador to consolidate his image as a left-wing president, who defends universal values and leaning towards peaceful dialogue and non-violence.” intervention”.
The first public message on the talks is scheduled for this Monday at 7:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. GMT) at the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) in Mexico City.