The vast majority of Havanans are unaware that until very recently, in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of the Cuban capital, a group of rebels with red arrest warrants from Interpol lived surrounded by secrecy and protected by a strong security device. terrorism.
At least 10 members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla who were in Cuba to negotiate with the Colombian government became fugitives in early 2019, when then-president Iván Duque decided to suspend the peace talks indefinitely after a bloody attack on a cadet school in Bogotá, claimed by the insurgents.
The chief negotiators with arrest warrants were Pablo Beltrán, the chief negotiator; Aureliano Carbonell, Silvana Guerrero, Manuel Gustavo Martínez, Alirio Sepúlveda, Isabel Torres, Consuelo Tapias, Tomás García Laviana, Viviana Henao and Óscar Serrano.
Although the guerrillas already lived in Havana with a very low profile, after the suspension of the dialogue their presence became almost non-existent, remembering that they were in the country through sporadic interviews with select media, always under the protective wing of the Cuban Government , who acts as an intermediary in almost all of the insurgents’ interactions with the outside world.
From the jungle to an exclusive tropical paradise
As thousands of Cubans scrambled to pack up and flee after Fidel Castro’s rebels entered Havana in 1959, many of the upper class left their mansions behind. Some, in a hurry to leave or hoping this would be a short-lived revolution, left most of their jewelry and prized possessions behind. The Castro government wasted no time in claiming hundreds of properties for itself in Havana and other cities in the country.
The new owners came and went taking inventories and packing paintings, sculptures, jewelry and furniture. A part of the palaces and luxurious apartments left behind were converted into schools and headquarters of institutions. Another part, the vast majority, was distributed among the new ruling class.
In Havana, hidden between the vegetation and bars guarded by the military, is El Laguito, an exclusive gated community expropriated from former Cuban millionaires where the communist government hosts its most illustrious guests. For decades, the community has had one of the most impenetrable security devices in the country.
A swarm of more than 100 protocol houses surrounded by palm trees and evergreen trees, golf courses, dedicated butler and chauffeur service, private pools where you can relax from the tropical heat and almost unlimited access to foods that many on the island cannot nor dream, El Laguito is a Cuba unknown to the vast majority of its inhabitants.
“We received all kinds of personalities, from artists, athletes to presidents. I remember Dilma Rousseff once, when she was president of Brazil, that she stayed in the house where I worked. She was very kind to us, ”she assured the voice of america Luisa, a former domestic worker at the complex.
Luisa, who has lived in Florida for two years and prefers not to reveal her last name, confesses that El Laguito is “a different Cuba, where food and luxury are not in short supply” for guests.
Gabriel García Márquez, Maradona, Hugo Chávez and more recently Cristina Fernández, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva and Nicolás Maduro have been regular guests at El Laguito. The FARC peace negotiators established a permanent residence there during the four years of dialogue with the Government of Colombia, held between 2012 and 2016 in the nearby Havana Convention Center.
When the venue for negotiations between the ELN and the Colombian government moved in 2018, the rebels began to enjoy the same privilege as their predecessors, with some key differences.
An almost ghostly life
Unlike the FARC negotiators, who could be seen eating in restaurants and enjoying Havana’s nightlife, at least during the first years of their stay, the ELN delegates have preferred to go unnoticed.
“In El Laguito there are several levels, not all protocol houses are the same. In the most luxurious stay the characters. There are also some more modest ones, but just as comfortable and with similar services”, explains Luisa. These “more normal” houses have been home to the guerrillas from 2018 until now.
After the peace talks between the ELN and the Government of Colombia in Ecuador got bogged down, the talks were held in Cuba, a choice that was not fortuitous. Havana would prove to be the right decision for the guerrillas by refusing to extradite them when former President Iván Duque issued the arrest warrants. Havana hid behind the diplomatic protocols of the talks and its status as guarantor.
Little is known about the remaining negotiators in Cuba. The number two of the guerrilla and head of the ELN peace delegation, Israel Ramírez, alias Pablo Beltrán, is the one who shows his face from time to time in interviews arranged with the help of the Cuban government and within the El Laguito complex itself. Journalists must process their requests with the International Press Center, which is part of the island’s Foreign Ministry. Several months usually pass between the petitions and the date of the interview.
These meetings are usually brief. Journalists are received at the entrance booths and, after a review of their documents, they are escorted to the designated house. The interviewee usually arrives a little later. The interview usually lasts an hour and the guerrilla says goodbye so as not to resurface in the public eye for weeks.
Among the guerrillas with arrest warrants was also Víctor Orlando Cubides, alias Aureliano Carbonell, one of the oldest members of the ELN Central Command, to which Luz Amanda Pallares, alias Silvana Guerrero, also belongs. Guerrero, who the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office believes would be in Venezuela, was related to the attack on the cadet school that ended the talks in 2019.
Juan de Dios Lizarazo, alias Alirio Sepúlveda, representative of the ELN’s Eastern War Front, is also linked to the bloody attack.
Back to the negotiating table
Just four days after taking office on August 7, Colombia’s new president, Gustavo Petro, sent an official delegation to meet with ELN peace negotiators.
Petro, a former guerrilla himself, thus fulfilled one of his campaign promises: to put an end to the conflict with the insurgent group once and for all and achieve a lasting peace in the country, based on bilateral agreements.
For his part, Beltrán had shown time and time again that he was willing to dialogue with whoever occupied the House of Nariño.
After the meeting in Cuba, the Petro government announced that it would return to the negotiating table and a few days later the president himself confirmed that he had lifted the arrest warrants for the 10 negotiators, including Pablo Beltrán.
“I have authorized the reinstatement of the protocols, to allow negotiators again, to allow them to reconnect with their organization, to suspend arrest warrants for those negotiators, to suspend extradition orders for those negotiators, to start a dialogue with the ELN, to try to build the path , hopefully fast and expeditious, where this organization stops being an insurgent guerrilla in Colombia, “said the Colombian president in an act on August 21.
Despite the progress, little is yet known about the fate of the talks. Neither party has announced possible dates and with the proposal a few days ago of Spain as the new venue by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, Cuba’s continuity as host is in doubt.
“Everything depends on the ELN,” said Gustavo Petro, who warned that the guerrillas have the last word.
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