Colombia claims Cuba’s role in peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army

Cuba has once again been the scene of Colombia’s peace efforts. The first handshake between President Gustavo Petro and Antonio Garcia, Commander in Chief of the National Liberation Army, last Friday in Havana recalled that of Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londoño, Tymoshenko, in the last phase of peace negotiations with the extinct FARC. On both occasions, they did it in front of the Cuban President who was hosting it, yesterday Raul …

Cuba has once again been the scene of Colombia’s peace efforts. The first handshake between President Gustavo Petro and Antonio Garcia, Commander in Chief of the National Liberation Army, last Friday in Havana recalled that of Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londoño, Tymoshenko, in the last phase of peace negotiations with the extinct FARC. On both occasions, they did it in front of the Cuban President who was a host, yesterday Raul Castro, today Miguel Diaz-Canel.

The “bilateral, national and temporary” cease-fire was announced in the ceremonial rooms of the Cuban government in El Laguito, which has already hosted some highlights in the long negotiations with the FARC. The so-called “Cuba Accords”, signed on Friday, lay the foundations for a cease-fire – for the time being for six months – and for the participation of civil society. This is an unprecedented progress in the operation with the National Liberation Army, the last armed guerrilla war in Colombia. The table for the fourth round of talks will return to Venezuela, where negotiations were launched, and Havana was deposited with the first stone of the comprehensive peace, a milestone that also represents compensation for the Caribbean island.

Petro thanked Cuba for decades of “hospitality” for peace in Colombia, and called its inclusion in a US list of state sponsors of terrorism “an act of deep diplomatic injustice” in his letter — which the presidency resubmitted on Monday. as a title. He even said that in a recent meeting he asked President Joe Biden to rectify this measure, because “this is an act of injustice that must be corrected.” The negotiators from the government and the fighters also persistently thanked the Cubans, for whom they paid dearly.

The diplomatic hostility that characterized Ivan Duque’s tenure (2018-2022) cost Havana once again that blacklist, entailing sanctions against people and countries that do certain trade activities with Cuba. In his day, Duque, a staunch critic of the agreement with the FARC, inherited the negotiations with the ELN that his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, had already begun. But he ended it after a guerrilla attack on a student school in Bogotá left 23 people dead, in January 2019. After the estrangement, Duque pretended to ignore protocols signed by the parties—including guarantor states—leading the rebels to leave. Delegation to Cuba in limbo. The island refused to hand them over, protected by protocols.

When Donald Trump’s government designated Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism” in January 2021, just nine days after leaving the White House, it justified its decision on the basis of repeated Colombian allegations. Cuba was removed from the list in 2015, and Trump’s last-minute move set back efforts by Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration to rebuild relations with the communist island, a historical enemy from the Cold War. It also complicated any potential Biden thaw.

What was at stake was not just a final rapprochement with the ELN or US relations with Cuba, “but the possibility of peace negotiations,” as Humberto de la Calle and Sergio Jaramillo, the architects of the agreement with FARC, warned, defending the island’s role as guarantor state. Besides Norway. Santos himself, backed by the group of world leaders gathered in The Elders, asked Biden to revoke the designation. “Cuba should be commended for the decisive role it has played in helping to end decades of conflict and facilitating reconciliation in Colombia, and not face sanctions for doing so,” said the Nobel Peace Prize winner in February 2021. Petro joined in the bustle.

Relations between Bogota and Havana with the Petro have returned to their pre-Duque state, which marked an arc in the Colombian diplomatic tradition, says internationalist Sandra Borda. “Practically all governments have realized that it is very difficult to conduct a negotiation process with the guerrilla groups in Colombia without the participation of Cuba,” notes one of the actors in whom they engender confidence. Colombia, for its part, is helping to reintegrate Cuba into the international community and normalize its relationship with Washington. Omitting Havana from the famous list that it shares with countries such as Syria, Iran and North Korea, however, is unlikely given the political moment the United States is going through, warns the academic from the University of Los Andes. He estimates that “the Biden administration will try to move to the political center, including taking a tougher stance on the issue of immigration and not being flexible or flexible in dealing with Cuba.”

Since taking power from Duque, the Petro government has turned Colombian diplomacy to the issue of “total peace”, its main policy, with which it intends to implement the agreement with the FARC with greater determination, dialogue with the ELN, and advance subjugation. The politics of criminal groups such as the Clan del Golfo. Efforts to negotiate with the National Liberation Army, which was born more than half a century ago under the influence of the Cuban Revolution, also pass through Havana, a partner in the search for peace.

Subscribe here To the EL PAÍS newsletter about Colombia and receive all the essential information about the current affairs of the country.