In Act of Submission to the United States, Colombia’s President-Elect Announces He Will Cut Ties with Cuba

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba rejected the statements made on July 26 by Colombia’s president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella Otero, who announced that he would close his country’s embassy in Havana and that his government would have no type of relationship with Cuba.

The ministry stated that these declarations move away from the historic relations of friendship and brotherhood between Cuba and Colombia.

“If this decision is carried out, a decision that has no minimum justification and does not respond to Colombia’s national interests, it would reveal the clear subordination of the next Colombian government to the policy of division and confrontation between our nations, promoted for decades by the United States, as well as its connections with the most disgraceful and vulgar sectors of anti-Cuban politics in that country,” the statement said.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry described the move as far removed from the ideals of Latin American and Caribbean unity defended by the leaders of both countries and to which the peoples of the region have devoted significant effort and sacrifice.

Cuba and Colombia maintain a fluid bilateral relationship, with important progress in economic and commercial ties, cooperation, and academic exchanges, benefiting both peoples. The Cuban government stated that expanding and strengthening these relations has been a permanent priority.

Cuba expressed that this hostile and unfounded action does not represent the sentiment of the Colombian people, whom it has supported for decades in the search for peace through a negotiated political solution to the country’s internal armed conflict.

The Cuban government affirmed that it will honor its commitments to students studying Medicine in Cuba as part of the Peace Agreements signed in Havana in 2016.

“The brotherhood between both peoples and nations will prevail over any attempt to harm it,” the statement concluded.

Havana, July 28, 2026.