Post by Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, Director General for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, on his profiles in X and Facebook, on November 4, 2024, in Oslo:
Today I had the honor of representing Cuba at the event "The Colombian Peace Agreement: 8 years later. An example to the world and lessons learned", to which I was invited by the Norwegian authorities.
In accordance with the determined Cuban contribution to this peace process and others in which it participates with modesty, discretion and determination, I emphasized that for Cuba, supporting peace in Colombia is a matter of principles. The brotherly Colombian people deserve peace and we must all support it. I recalled that Cuba firmly considers that the solution to the Colombian armed conflict is political and must be negotiated.
I acknowledged that Norwegian leaders and officials have made a great contribution to the peace processes in Colombia.
I shared lessons learned by so many Cuban colleagues who have dedicated thousands of hours to these processes, especially the respect for the parties at the negotiating table.
I shared the idea of the ability developed by representatives of the guarantor countries to identify what one of the two parties wants that the other cannot see, and how with respect, a guarantor approaches the other party to tell them what their opponent really wants. Always on the basis of respect for what has been agreed. Precisely because of respecting what has been agreed by the parties and guarantors, Cuba is the victim of one of the greatest political injustices: being part of a unilateral list of States that sponsor terrorism.
In recounting the fulfillment of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian State and the FARC-EP eight years ago, I recalled the offer made by Cuba of a thousand university-level scholarships for demobilized members of the FARC-EP and victims of the conflict, of which the first 68 doctors have already graduated and returned to Colombia, while nearly eight hundred continue studying in Cuba. These first graduates, back in Colombia, were placed by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of Colombia in territories, not in the big cities, as a living example of the benefits of the Peace Agreement.
(Embassy of Cuba in Norway)