Colombian government and ELN rebels meet in Havana to restart peace talks

He said that included lifting arrest warrants for ELN negotiators who are currently living in exile in Cuba.

Following that incident, Colombian authorities issued arrest warrants for ELN leaders in Cuba for the peace negotiations. But Cuba refused to extradite them, arguing that doing so would compromise its status as a neutral nation in the conflict and break with diplomatic protocols.

The United States responded by placing Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But violence has picked up in some parts of the country as Farc dissidents, drug trafficking groups and the ELN fight over cocaine smuggling routes, illegal mines and other resources that were abandoned by the Farc.

The ELN, which was founded in 1964, has long been designated by the US state department as a foreign terrorist organization. The group has an estimated 2,500 fighters in Colombia and also runs drug trafficking routes, extortion rackets and illegal mines in neighboring Venezuela.