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 would close the Colombian embassy in Havana and that his government would maintain no ties with the island, labeling Cuba and Nicaragua as "tyrannies."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba titled its note as “In an act of submission 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 breakup "has no justification whatsoever and does not align with Colombian national interests."
The statement asserts that, if the measure is implemented, it would reveal "the clear subordination of the next government of Colombia to the policy of division and confrontation between our nations, long promoted by the United States, as well as its connections with the most infamous and vulgar aspects of anti-Cuban politics in that country."
The Cuban regime attempted to distance the incoming government from the Colombian people, stating that "this hostile and unfounded action does not represent the feelings of the brotherly Colombian people, whom we have tirelessly supported for decades in their pursuit of peace."
The foreign ministry 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 specific 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 "The Miracle Homeland".
Rubio congratulated De la Espriella just hours after his victory in June, when the preliminary count assigned him 49.66% of the votes, and stated that "the best days of 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 an initial 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 emphasized that only with these last two will there be a complete diplomatic break: "In my government, there will be no connection with tyrannies," he declared on Sunday.
De la Espriella will take office on August 7 in Cali, the date when it will be known if the diplomatic break with Cuba becomes effective.
The Colombian case is not isolated: in March, Costa Rica closed its embassy in Cuba, citing the deterioration of human rights on the island, and the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez responded with almost identical language, describing that decision as "arbitrary and unjustified" and similarly attributing it to pressures from Washington.
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