The designation of Cuba as a “State sponsor of terrorism”, one of the latest moves of the Donald Trump Administration, has had repercussions on Colombian politics. Washington has justified the steps prior to its decision in a reiterative claim from the Government of Iván Duque, which resents that Havana has refused to extradite a group of commanders of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last active guerrilla in the country Andean. What is at stake is not only a possible rapprochement with the ELN or the relations of the United States with Cuba, “but the very possibility of carrying out peace negotiations,” Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo, the architects of the historic agreement with the FARC, defending the island’s role as guarantor.
The deterioration of relations between Colombia and Cuba dates back to the end of the dialogue with the ELN after the attack on a cadet school in Bogotá that caused 22 deaths, in January 2019, when Duque was serving his first semester in power. The island hosted the process, as it had already done with the FARC, and protected by the protocols of rupture, it has denied the extradition of the ELN’s negotiating leadership. As a claim for what it qualifies as “hostile acts” by Havana, Colombia was even one of the very few countries that abstained from voting at the UN in favor of lifting the economic blockade on the island, but the inclusion in the black list The United States is the most critical moment of the growing tension between the two Latin American capitals.
De la Calle and Jaramillo, the highest representatives of the Executive of Juan Manuel Santos at the negotiating table with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, today converted into a political party with representation in Congress on account of the agreement sealed at the end of 2016, They recognize and appreciate the generosity and professionalism displayed by the Cuban Government in favor of peace in Colombia. His role was so decisive that the process is known simply as the Havana dialogues. As Norway, the other guarantor of the process with the FARC, had already pointed out, they argue that if the countries that facilitate peace efforts run the risk of being designated as sponsors of terrorism, they will think twice before supporting them.
“It is then a nonsense and an act of state ingratitude unparalleled with the Republic of Cuba that, in the framework of similar negotiations with the ELN, the Government of Iván Duque has demanded the delivery to the Colombian authorities of the members of that delegation, against the protocols signed by the Government of Colombia and the international guarantors, which require the return of the ELN negotiators to their places of origin in the event of a breakdown in the talks ”, they point out. “The fact that the ELN had committed an atrocious act of terrorism at the National Police Cadet School in Bogotá –which we condemn most vehemently– and that the Government, as is its right, had abandoned the negotiation, not changes the terms of what was formally agreed by Colombia in the framework of the peace process ”.
They also reproach the Duque government, who was a staunch opponent of the Havana dialogues, “privileging ideology and party interests over common sense and international commitments”, as well as “framing itself within the ideological program of the Trump administration. and leave Colombia’s international relations at its lowest point ”. Duque was risking his status as a close ally of Trump in Latin America in the November elections, and the Democratic Center, the government party founded by former president Álvaro Uribe, indiscriminately supported the republican’s re-election under the slogan of putting a stop to “Castro-Chavism ”. Joe Biden’s victory threw off Colombian diplomacy, and the assault on Congress by Trump supporters exacerbates the difficulties in the face of the imminent rearrangement of relations with the Democratic Administration.
Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo responded to a letter from the Democratic Center bench in which they asked President Duque, after the designation of the countries sponsoring terrorism, “a careful review, and substantive decisions, regarding relations with the Cuban regime ”. Among its signatories were Representative Juan David Vélez and Senator María Fernanda Cabal, two of the Colombian politicians most involved in Trump’s re-election campaign in Florida, punctuated by disinformation campaigns and fear of “socialism”.
In the opposite direction, a score of congressmen from different political forces, which included representatives of the FARC party, reminded the president that “Cuba has contributed significantly to the peace processes in Colombia” in the last four decades, and they urge him to resume dialogue with the ELN. “In this way, Colombia would advance in the achievement of total peace and, at the same time, would send a clear message to the international community about the meaning of the valuable contribution that Cuba has made to end the internal armed conflict.”
source https://pledgetimes.com/colombian-negotiators-defend-cubas-role-in-the-peace-processes/
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