Colombia: Peace Talks With ELN Finally Begin

QUITO, Ecuador - With the help of neighbor and host Ecuador, Colombia's government has finally entered into peace talks with the nation's second-largest rebel group, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) or the Army of National Liberation, in Quito.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who oversaw the monumental peace talks with the much larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that were ratified just months ago, saluted the start of the talks in the Ecuadorian capital.

In 2015, Santos asked his fellow Colombians to join his "crusade for peace" amidst the FARC talks and announced that his government had opened an exploratory phase of talks with the ELN. In a joint statement, the two sides stated that they initiated early talks after a series of contacts and exploratory meetings held since 2013.

A September 2016 scheduled start date failed to...