Simon Romero of the New York Times writes about Colombia’s Marxist rebel group National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional — ELN) and the refuge that Cuba has and is providing:
Dinner with the guerrillas was a civilized affair. A chauffeured Mercedes, courtesy of Cuba’s government, delivered guests to the villa where the leaders of one of Colombia’s most resilient rebel groups often stay when they are in town.
Francisco Galán, a former seminarian with a long white beard, poured glasses of Añejo de Caldas rum and distributed cigarettes from a pack of Marlboro Lights. Before sitting down to a meal of red snapper, a treat commonly reserved for visitors with hard currency, Pablo Beltrán, the lead negotiator for the National Liberation Army, or E.L.N., offered a toast: “To Cuba.”
To Cuba: a fitting tribute to a nation that nurtured the insurgency from its origins here in the 1960s and has since become something of a refuge for the aging rebels, who occasionally come here for medical care.
It is also, paradoxically, the place where the revolutionaries are trying to peacefully end their movement after decades of violent struggle against a string of pro-American governments. This is one of the only places where the E.L.N. feels safe enough to engage in cease-fire talks with Colombia’s government.
Full text here.
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