Colombia, rebels open peace talks in Cuba
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-17 10:17

Neither side in the talks provided details of their demands. Restrepo did not mention a ceasefire, and said the Colombian government was open to more diversity in the political system. Garcia did not speak of any political aspirations for his group, focusing instead on the need for all Colombians to have more of a voice in the nation's governing.

When Cuba last hosted Colombia's talks with the ELN, in 2002, then-President Andres Pastrana pulled out, saying the rebel group was not interested in peace. Friday's talks mark the Uribe administration's first formal negotiations with insurgents.

Garcia urged patience this time, warning that the ELN's 41-year war against the Colombian state would not end overnight.

"Peace is not a moment, it's not an act," Garcia said. "It's a process, it's the construction of a stage."

Garcia was assisted by ELN spokesman Francisco Galan, a captured ELN commander whom Uribe temporarily released from prison in September in hopes he would help nudge his group toward peace, and Ramiro Vargas, an ELN member living in Cuba.

Cuba serves as a safe zone for Garcia. Usually, the rebel commander hides out deep in Colombia's mountains and jungles, alternately fighting and running from Uribe's military. Showing his face back home could mean immediate arrest, or death in combat.

Garcia Marquez, best known for his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude," is a friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, and both men have tried in the past to encourage Colombia's guerillas and government to reach an accord.

The extent of the novelist's participation beyond Friday's opening event was not immediately clear, but even having his name associated with the effort makes a difference, the rebel commander said.