The decision by the government of outgoing US president Donald Trump to re-include Cuba in the list of state sponsors of terrorism triggered a political impetus in Colombia, leading some sectors to even ask that Iván Duque’s government is taking ” substantive decisions “on relations with the island.
A few days before Trump leaves the White House, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the decision that will be possible potentially complicate the chances that incoming President Joe Biden will soon resume the rapprochement with Havana.
This fact unleashed a pulse in Colombia. While the opposition backed Cuba and asked the Duque administration to resume negotiations with the ELN, the Democratic Center Bank assured in a letter to the head of state that “this shows once again that the Castro regime is sponsoring and hosting terrorists.”
(Also see: What did a group of Congressmen ask Duque about Eln?)
Uribismo’s congressmen called for “a careful review and substantive decisions regarding relations with the Cuban regime led today by Miguel Díaz-Canel.”
One of the most vehement statements, however, came from the former government peace negotiators in Havana. Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo not only defended Cuba’s role, but argued it without the country’s commitment and contribution, “there would have been no peace agreement in Colombia.”
As representatives of the Colombian government, with all the differences we may have with the Cuban regime, We are obligated to recognize and thank Cuba’s generous spirit and professionalism in favor of peace in Colombia, ”the former peace negotiators said in a statement released this Friday.
We are obliged to acknowledge and thank Cuba’s generous spirit and professionalism for peace.
In the text, De la Calle and Jaramillo add that “it is then a nonsense and an act of ingratitude on the part of the state unmatched by the Republic of Cuba that, in the context of similar negotiations with the ELn, the government of Iván Duque de delivery. to the Colombian authorities of the members of that delegation, in violation of the protocols signed by the Colombian government and international guarantors, which require the return of the ELN negotiators to their places of origin in the event of a breakdown in talks.
For former members of the government negotiating team in Cuba, the Democratic Center Bank’s request to “thoroughly review” relations with the island has “features of incoherence”.
Now the Democratic Center, the ruling party, with characteristic incoherence, is demanding that ‘decisions’ be made against Cuba, forgetting that its boss Álvaro Uribe as president of Colombia has asked Cuba to receive an ELN delegation to conduct exploratory peace talks. to start. Between 2005 and 2007, there were eight rounds of failed negotiations in Havana between the Uribe government and the Eln, ”said one of the points of the statement.
“What is at stake is not just peace with the ELn or the United States’ relations with Cuba, but the ability to conduct peace negotiations,” add De la Calle and Jaramillo.
See the statement by Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo here
POLITICS