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Colombia Relations with Communist Countries
Throughout the post-World War II period, Colombia's
international stance was based on consistent support of
the United
States against the Soviet Union and its allies. Colombia
severed
relations with the Soviet Union in the wake of the 1948
Bogotazo,
amid accusations of Soviet complicity in the rioting.
After
reestablishing relations with the Soviet Union in 1968,
Colombia
made various commercial, scientific, and educational
agreements
with the Soviet Union and its allies. In early 1976,
Colombia and
the Soviet Union signed the Commercial Cooperation Treaty.
Colombia's relations with the communist nations of
Africa and
Asia were limited primarily to concern over these nations
as
economic competitors in the production of such primary
commodities
as coffee. For example, Colombia's relations with Angola
during its
civil war in late 1975 and early 1976 were influenced by
the
importance of coffee to both countries. President López
Michelsen
refused to condemn Cuba's involvement in the Angolan civil
war and
in 1976 recognized the Popular Movement for the Liberation
of
Angola (Movimento Popular de Liberação de Angola--MPLA)
as that
nation's government in order to maintain the good
relations that
both countries enjoyed as coffee exporters. Bogotá's
relations with
China remained cordial in 1988, but trade between the two
countries
was negligible.
Colombia's relations with Cuba have been strained since
Castro
seized power in 1959. From the early 1960s, when it helped
to
establish the National Liberation Army (Ejército de
Liberación
Nacional--ELN), Cuba supported Colombian guerrilla groups
(see Guerrilla and Terrorist Groups
, ch. 5). Colombia actively
supported
OAS sanctions against Cuba in 1962 and the expulsion of
Cuba from
the OAS in 1964. Bogotá reestablished full diplomatic
relations
with Cuba in 1975, after the OAS reversed its policy of
isolating
the Castro government. Bilateral relations again declined,
however,
after the Sandinista victory in Nicaragua in mid-1979 when
Castro
renewed Cuba's support for insurgency in Latin America.
During
Turbay's administration, Colombia actively opposed Cuba by
blocking
Havana's attempts to secure a UN Security Council seat. In
1981,
after Cuba admitted supporting a failed M-19 attempt to
launch a
rural insurgency, the Turbay administration broke
diplomatic
relations with Havana. In late 1987, an official Colombian
commission recommended that the country renew diplomatic
relations
with Cuba but "without haste."
Data as of December 1988
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