Cuba breaks silence on controversial memorandum to Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (AP) Cuba broke its silence on Saturday, February 13th, on a memorandum it delivered to the Colombian government warning it of an alleged guerrilla attack in Bogotá and regretted that this gesture was used by the administration of President Iván Duque to fuel binational tension.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry of the Caribbean nation also expressed its “concern” about the management of the peace process by Duque and the killing of social leaders and former rebels of the already inactive Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) linked to the dialogue of peace, of which he was the guarantor and that managed to deliver the weapons of the former guerrilla in 2018.

According to the text, the Cuban embassy in Colombia received information about an alleged military attack by the Eastern War Front of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to be carried out in the next few days in Bogotá and on February 6th requested an interview with the Foreign Ministry of the South American country.

Despite the urgency, an appointment was only made for Monday, February 8th, when Ambassador José Luis Ponce gave the memorandum to Vice Chancellor Francisco Echeverry.

“We then observed with surprise that a matter of security, of the greatest sensitivity, treated with the greatest discretion and urgency by our country, was immediately handed over … to the media,” the statement said. “Twenty-five minutes after the memorandum was presented by Cuba, the press was already publishing a copy of the document itself.”

The information offered in good will was used “as a pretext to attack Cuba under mendacious assumptions, with the usual hostility and approach that only tend to fuel the differences between the two governments and damage the participation of international actors in the peace process,” added text.

The Colombian Commissioner for Peace, Miguel Ceballos, insisted that the island provide further details and disclose the source, while disbelieving the ignorance of the facts alleged by the ELN delegation in Havana of an attack. At the same time, officials from the South American country took up the request for Cuba to hand over the leaders of that rebel organization who are in its territory.

The ELN itself, both in Colombia and in Cuba, denied that it was preparing actions and considered that it could even be a false positive or a possible attack carried out by a group to hand it over to the guerrillas.

Cuba became involved in the peace process and as guarantor of the dialogue between the ELN and the Colombian government between 2017 and 2018, after the agreement reached with the FARC.