On behalf of his government, President Petro called for removing Cuba from this spurious SST list orchestrated by the United States.

On X social media, the Colombian leader enlightened that the inclusion of Cuba in the SST list is due to the request made by the Ivan Duque administration to the United States. Petro explained that Duque´s excuse was because, as agreed with Juan Manuel Santos´ administration, the peace negotiators with the National Liberation Army (ELN) could not be handed over as hostages, as requested by Duque.

The previous agreements signed by Colombia, Cuba and Norway were betrayed. My government is presently negotiating peace with those same free ELN negotiators”, Petro added.

He stressed that Duque’s betrayal consequence to the word pledged by the Colombian government is that today most of the medicines that need to be imported for saving lives of Cuban children cannot enter Cuba.

“It is a criminal consequence that cannot be maintained because its basis is nothing but lies. Innocent lives cannot continue to be lost because of the blind fundamentalism in favor of the violence of a former president of Colombia”, Petro warned.

He warned that the U.S. government must begin to close and heal the open wounds in history with Latin America.

“To remove Cuba from the SST list is to recover the truth in our relations and the beginning of a new dialogue to overcome issues of our common America”, Petro remarked.

pll/rgh/otf