The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Arancha González Laya, with the Colombian Foreign Minister, Claudia Blum at the Palacio de San Carlos, in Bogotá. Ministry of Foreign Relations / EFE
Spain will allocate more than 144 million dollars (120 million euros) in the next four years to strengthen cooperation with Colombia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, announced this Friday, after signing a new partnership strategy in Bogotá with her counterpart Claudia Blum.
The head of Spanish diplomacy has reaffirmed from the Palacio de San Carlos, the seat of the Chancellery, Madrid's decided support for the implementation of the peace agreement with the extinct FARC guerrilla and recognized the enormous effort of the Government of Iván Duque to serve Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, by far the main host country.
In addition to strengthening bilateral relations, and projecting them to the economic recovery after the pandemic, González Laya's visit "has a lot to do with recognizing the great and generous effort of this country towards Venezuelan migrants," a noble gesture that the The government of Spain wants to support at times when other places close borders and erect walls, he said.
"We are going to continue to make sure that this crisis has the international attention it deserves," he said about the Venezuelan exodus in the region.
Colombia announced this month a temporary protection statute - valid for 10 years - that aims to regularize the 1.7 million Venezuelan citizens who are already in the country, about a million of them undocumented.
On Saturday, the two foreign ministers will visit Cúcuta, the main Colombian city on the border, to learn about the situation on the ground and see first-hand care for migrants.
More than five million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years driven by hyperinflation, insecurity or the shortage of food and medicine.
Colombia is the country most impacted by this unprecedented diaspora in Latin America.
"The cooperation of the international community is crucial," stressed the Colombian Foreign Minister, thanking the donors conference that Spain organized last year in conjunction with the European Union.
This year there will be a new conference in Canada.
In parallel to the migratory phenomenon, Bogotá and Caracas are radically at odds.
Since he came to power in August 2018, Duque has been a fierce critic of Nicolás Maduro - whom he has even denounced before the International Criminal Court - and the main promoter of imposing a "diplomatic siege" on the Chavista regime.
His unrestricted support for Juan Guaidó, whom he still recognizes as the president in charge of Venezuela, has raised the tension between two neighbors who share more than 2,200 kilometers of border.
Colombia has denounced that both the FARC dissidents and the ELN –the last active guerrilla in the country– find a sanctuary on the other side of the border line.
González Laya's visit has also been preceded by the escalation of tension between the European Union and the Maduro regime.
Caracas decided to expel the European ambassador due to the new sanctions adopted by Brussels, and the bloc for its part declared
the Venezuelan ambassador to the European Union
persona
non grata
in retaliation.
The result of the legislative elections on December 6 in Venezuela was not recognized by the EU, the United States, or Colombia.
From Caracas, several figures of the Chavista regime have pointed out Spain to support the supposed "destabilizing" plans of Bogotá.
Support for peace
González Laya's third purpose in Colombia is to redouble support for efforts to implement the agreements.
"We all know that this is not an easy process," and that there will be steps forward and steps back, he said.
"Spain has always supported the peace process from the knowledge of how important it is to put the spotlight and light on what happened in the past, to build a future for all Colombians based on solid roots," he added.
"With the peace accords the war ended, but a new process began that has to revolve around truth, justice, reparation and the commitment of non-repetition."
The Minister of Foreign Affairs met on Friday morning with the heads of the institutions that make up the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition, to learn first-hand how the implementation of the pact they sealed four years ago is progressing the Government of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) and the extinct FARC, now disarmed and turned into a political party.
The meeting took place at the headquarters of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the court in charge of trying the most serious crimes that occurred in the context of the war.
The presidents of the JEP, magistrate Eduardo Cifuentes;
from the Truth Commission, the Jesuit priest Francisco de Roux, who this year will deliver his long-awaited final report;
and Luz Marina Monzón, the director of the Unit for the Search for Persons Considered Missing.
"Only from the work of these institutions to clarify the past, to bring that light on the past, can the future of Colombians be built," said González Laya at the end of that meeting.
The JEP, considered the backbone of the agreements, has had the strong support of the international community, but has had to operate in the midst of the political polarization that has characterized Colombian society since the negotiation with the FARC.
Despite the obstacles, it has made progress in 2021 with its investigations in two of the seven major processes - or macro cases - that it is carrying out.
In January, he charged the leadership of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia with a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to kidnapping.
And last week it established that between 2002 and 2008 there were more than 6,400 victims of the so-called “false positives”, the euphemism with which the murders of civilians by the military are known to present them as guerrillas who have fallen in combat.
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