The deal was struck in Havana, with help from Venezuelan, Cuban and Norwegian diplomats. Talks are due to start in Oslo Oct. 5. President Barack Obama, Reuters reported, “is aware of the process and is in agreement.” After the initial round of negotiations in Norway, Colombia’s government and the guerillas are to return to Havana, sit at the negotiating table and not leave until a peace pact is signed.
We can’t know now what this means for Colombia — though we earnestly hope it leads to peace. But one thing we do know is this: Because Cuba made a big contribution to this breakthrough, it undermines arguments by the anti-Cuba hard-liners in Congress. It also poses a direct challenge to Obama’s handling of the U.S.-Cuba relations.
As the Council on Foreign Relations has reported, “intelligence experts have been hard-pressed to find evidence that Cuba currently provides weapons or military training to terrorist groups. In 1998, a comprehensive review by the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Cuba does not pose a threat to U.S. national security, which implies that Cuba no longer sponsors terrorism.”
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