Briefings & Intelligence

24-09-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

  • LatinNews

Pope upstaged by historic Havana meeting

The visit of Pope Francis to Cuba and the US this week had been eagerly anticipated ever since it emerged last December that he had played a pivotal role in the diplomatic rapprochement between two countries bitterly opposed for over half a century. But even so, with three papal visits in the last 17 years, the more momentous event in Havana came the day after Pope Francis departed for the US when Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos met the leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrillas. A handshake between Santos and ‘Timochenko’ (Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri) seemed as unlikely as that between Cuban President Raúl Castro and his US peer Barack Obama but, together with the announcement of the most significant breakthrough in the annals of any peace process with the Farc, it paves the way for the resolution of the hemisphere’s other great intractable dispute.

While Pope Francis has played a pivotal role in reconciling Cuba and the US, President Castro’s role in reconciling implacable foes in Colombia is an achievement on a similar scale. It was Castro who persuaded a reluctant President Santos to clasp Timochenko’s hand, and promised that Cuba, a guarantor nation, would continue to provide “absolute impartiality and discretion” as part of its “modest contribution” to help bring about peace.

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