Colombia opened peace talks Tuesday with its last active rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), seeking to end a 53-year conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people.

The representative for host country Ecuador, Juan Meriguet, declared the talks open in a small ceremony -- a new milestone in the Colombian peace process, after President Juan Manuel Santos's government sealed a historic accord with the country's largest rebel group, the FARC, in November.