The outgoing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, explained this Friday that he has decided to travel to Cuba on his last official tour abroad with the aim of "opposing a war in the Caribbean," referring to the recent warnings from the United States about a possible military intervention on the island.
In a message disseminated on his social networks, the head of state stated: "I want to oppose a war in the Caribbean from Cuba (...) Neither missiles, nor invasion, nor blockade are solutions within the problems of humanity."
Petro defended his choice of Havana as the final destination of his mandate by recalling the contribution of the island to Colombia, including the training of around 2,000 Colombian doctors, its role as a mediator to "help" former president Juan Manuel Santos in the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the fact that it has "saved" millions of people on the planet with the development of its vaccine against Covid-19.
At the same time, he criticized the recent armed operations in the Caribbean that, he denounced, have caused the death of "humble" people, including dozens of Colombian citizens.
"The missiles against the Caribbean Sea directed at drug traffickers killed humble people, as the intelligence agencies of the US have just verified, they were of no use, but they did assassinate 261 people among them, apparently, 50 Colombians," the president specified.
Petro also expressed his disagreement with the diplomatic line announced by the incoming government, led by the far-right elected president Abelardo de la Espriella, which plans to break ties with several states that, according to him, "opposed the genocide in Gaza."
"The new government led by Netanyahu, drug trafficking, and those who have produced the genocide in Colombia, elected by algorithmic fraud, is going to close diplomatic relations with the countries that most opposed the genocide in Gaza: South Africa, Malaysia, Algeria, Cuba, Haiti, and the very Palestine that is attacked and sacrificed who suffers a genocide directed by Netanyahu," he added.
The Colombian leader landed this Friday in Havana on what is supposed to be his third official visit to Cuba, after the trips made in June and September 2023.