QUITO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador said on Wednesday it will stop hosting peace talks between Colombia's government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group as long as the rebels continue to carry out "terrorist acts."
"I have asked Ecuador's foreign minister to stop these talks ... for as long as the ELN does not pledge to stop carrying out these terrorist acts," Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said in an interview with Colombian news networks RCN News and NTN24.
The decision follows a spike in crime along Ecuador's border with Colombia, including the recent abduction and killing of a three-man press team that was reporting on the border situation, and the kidnapping of a young couple.
In addition, four Ecuadorian military troops have been killed in the region, where rebels and drug traffickers operate.
The talks have been taking place in Ecuador's capital Quito, with the ELN looking to strike a similar peace deal with the government as Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) did in 2016, putting an end to five decades of fighting. The FARC has since renounced violence and transformed into a political party.
Both kidnappings were blamed on a dissident faction of the FARC that broke away after the group struck the peace deal.
Colombia's two negotiating sides have held five rounds of talks in Quito, though conversations were suspended for two months after the rebels launched renewed offensives following the end of a temporary ceasefire.
The fifth round of talks was expected to continue until May 19, ahead of Colombia's May 27 presidential elections.