The Cuban foreign ministry reacted this Tuesday with an official statement to the announcement by the elected president of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, who declared that he will close the Colombian embassy in Havana and that his government will have no connection with the island, labeling Cuba and Nicaragua as "tyrannies."
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs titled its note as "In an act of subordination to the aggressive policy of the United States, the elected President of Colombia announces that he will cut ties with Cuba," clearly indicating from the headline the perspective with which the regime interprets the decision.
Furthermore, the official text from the Cuban Foreign Ministry states that the break «has no minimal justification and does not align with Colombian national interests».
The statement argues that if the measure were to be implemented, it would reveal "the clear subordination of the next government of Colombia to the policy of division and confrontation between our nations, which has always been promoted by the United States, along with its connections to the most infamous and vulgar aspects of anti-Cuba politics in that country."
The Cuban regime attempted to distance the incoming government from the Colombian people, asserting that "this hostile and unfounded action does not reflect the feelings of the brotherly Colombian people, whom we have tirelessly supported for decades in their quest for peace."
The chancellery also recalled Havana's role as the venue for peace negotiations with the ELN under the outgoing government of Gustavo Petro, and reaffirmed that "Cuba will honor its commitments to the young people studying Medicine in our country, as part of the Peace Agreements signed in Havana in 2016."
The accusation of "subordination" to Washington has a concrete background: the Colombian elected vice president José Manuel Restrepo met on July 15 with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington as part of a diplomatic mission called "La Patria Milagro".
Rubio congratulated De la Espriella just hours after his victory in June, when the preliminary count assigned him 49.66% of the votes, and he stated that "the best days for Colombia are yet to come."
Weeks later, the State Department stated that Washington wanted to become the "partner of choice" for the country.
De la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and businessman with no prior experience in elected positions, announced the closure of 14 embassies in a first phase, including those in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Hungary, Malaysia, Romania, Senegal, and South Africa, as well as Cuba and Nicaragua.
However, he specified that only with these last two would there be a complete diplomatic break: "In my government, there will be no ties to tyrannies," he declared on Sunday.
De la Espriella will take office on August 7 in Cali, the date on which it will be known whether the diplomatic rupture with Cuba will be finalized.
The Colombian case is not isolated: in March, Costa Rica closed its embassy in Cuba, citing the deterioration of human rights on the island. The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez then responded with almost identical language, labeling that decision as "arbitrary and unjustified" and attributing it to pressures from Washington as well.
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