The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Cuba calls Petro's election in Colombia a "historic popular victory"

2022-06-20T19:53:12.645Z


The island government hopes to add more support in the region in the face of the political struggle that it has had for six decades with the United States


The elected president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, together with his vice president, Francia Márquez.Santiago Mesa

Cuba was one of the first nations on the continent to congratulate Gustavo Petro for his "historic" victory on Sunday at the Colombian polls.

Petro's victory adds one more progressive government to the region at an important moment for Havana, when several Latin American countries have stood up to the US for its exclusion policy at the recent Summit of the Americas.

Minutes after the final results of the elections in Colombia were confirmed, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described what happened as a "historic popular victory" and sent Petro his "most fraternal congratulations on his election," expressing his "willingness to advance in the development of bilateral relations”.

Simultaneously, also in a Twitter message,

Cuba played a key role in the Peace Agreements between the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC guerrillas, signed in Havana in November 2016. It also facilitated the development of negotiations in his country between the Colombian Government and the ELN.

These talks began in Quito in 2017 and were transferred to the Cuban capital a year later, before Ivan Duque was inaugurated as president of Colombia, in August 2018. Those contacts between representatives of the Colombian government and an ELN delegation advanced with few results. , until in January 2019 a guerrilla attack against a police academy left 22 dead.

The Duque government then requested the immediate extradition of the guerrillas who were in Havana.

Cuba opposed it because it violated the agreements signed before the start of the meetings, which established that in the event of a breakdown in the negotiations, the guarantor countries and the parties would have 15 days to create a corridor that would allow the return to Colombia of the ELN delegation.

That led to a diplomatic conflict between Bogotá and Havana and had consequences beyond.

The presence in Cuban territory of members of the guerrilla was used as an excuse by the administration of former US President Donald Trump to re-include the island on the list of countries that do not cooperate in the fight against terrorism, from which it had Also exmandatario Barack Obama was removed.

Sources close to that negotiation with the ELN pointed out that although Duque remained at the dialogue table for a few months, he was never really interested in the peace talks progressing.

Now, with the new government of Petro, himself a former guerrilla, the path of dialogue could be resumed to end the armed conflict in Colombia, something that Havana would be willing to support again.

In April 2020, as a senator, Petro traveled to Cuba for medical treatment.

At that time, a cancerous tumor was discovered early, for which he underwent surgery.

“I am grateful to the Cuban Medical and Surgical Research Center (CIMEQ) for having discovered the cancer in my esophagus early and for its surgical intervention.

I hope it doesn't show up again.

I thank the Cuban people for their hospitality in the midst of the pandemic and the blockade, ”he expressed then on Twitter.

It is still early to know what kind of relations Petro will maintain with Cuba, but undoubtedly its electoral victory is good news for Havana.

Various analysts point out that the Colombian president has not closed ranks with the island, neither during the electoral campaign nor before, as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has done.

Yes, he has spoken out against the US embargo and because of his leftist positions, a substantial improvement in relations can be expected, but with nuances.

After the massive protests in Cuba on July 11 of last year, the future president of Colombia limited himself to giving his opinion in a Twitter message: “In Cuba, as in Colombia, social dialogue is imposed.

Living societies are those that move and achieve transformations from their dialogue and not from their self-destruction”.

The coming to power in Colombia of the first left-wing government in its history is valued very positively in Cuba, and more so at a time when Latin America —pending the elections in Brazil— seems to be turning towards progressive administrations.

For Havana, which has experienced the protest of a group of countries in the region against Washington's policy of exclusion during the last Summit of the Americas as a diplomatic victory, Petro's words in favor of a diverse America did not go unnoticed during his first speech on Sunday as he celebrated the election results.

In principle, and at the very least, the Cuban government hopes to have more support in the region in the dispute that has confronted it with the United States for six decades.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-06-20

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-24T22:04:33.642Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.