Negotiations between the FARC-EP and the Colombian government stretched over four years to end the five-decade war. Fortunately, Cuba did not pay attention to President Duque, respected the protocols that he had promised to enforce and did not extradite the members of the ELN commission who have been in Havana since 2017, when Ecuador resigned from hosting the talks. of peace with the guerrillas, and the Santos government asked the Cuban government to agree to become the venue for those talks. Thanks to that attitude, it is now much easier to resume the peace negotiations with the ELN at the point where Santos left them.
However, this position of honoring its word and its status as a guarantor country has generated very serious problems for Havana, caused by the disloyalty of the Duque government and by the hatred of Trump and his friends, who did not rest until they managed to get Cuba was included again in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, from which the Obama administration had removed it in 2015.
This inclusion has brought serious survival problems to the inhabitants of the island, derived from the inhumane economic restrictions that result from the condition of being considered “sponsors of terrorism”.
All of this has generated strong migratory pressure from many Cubans seeking to leave, especially to the United States, which could turn that country into a boomerang.
More than 20 months have passed since Biden took office and stated that his government was going to review that status as a “sponsor of terrorism” country, with which Cuba has been unfairly classified since when the Trump government, with only a few days left to After finishing his administration, he included it in that macabre list with the argument that giving shelter to the ELN was proof that it was sponsoring terrorists.
But since then, Biden has done little to ease the situation for the Cubans. And nothing that he has moved to remove Cuba from the list.
Now, when the Petro government has asked that of Havana to continue hosting the talks with the ELN and other countries have offered to collaborate with the process, the Biden government does not have a single argument for not taking the steps necessary in order to immediately remove Cuba from the gloomy list.
Already the pressure for Biden to act in this regard is growing. In fact, more than 10,000 people have signed an open letter addressed to President Biden asking him to reverse the measure imposed by Trump and restore Obama’s policy towards the island.
“His policies with respect to Cuba, which have been more aligned with those of Trump than with those of Obama, are affecting the well-being of the Cuban people and go against the will of the majority of Americans. We urge – the letter adds – that you immediately make an important change in policy and remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism”.
The Colombian foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva Durán, had also made the same request when, a few days after taking office, he traveled to Havana to resume talks with the ELN.
So it is time for President Biden to stop dwelling on the matter and act.
Two great friends left this week: former minister Jaime García Parra, whom she loved since she was a child, and doctor Rafael Carrillo, an extraordinary human being. Peace in the graves of him. And a very close hug for his families.