Rubio is the same as his

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, referring to the proven plot to overthrow him, considered that the opportunistic Trumpist Foreign Minister Marco Rubio should not have participated in the plan, because he believed the traitor of unfortunate Cuban origin is a representative of a government that has Iran as its enemy and nuclear bombs pointed at it, a problem in Gaza, and a problem in Ukraine, and Russia "is fooling around with a coup d'état in Gran Colombia."

Throughout his speech, the Colombian head of state addressed direct comments to US congressmen and officials of Cuban origin living in that country, who have criticized the government of Colombia. Petro urged them to define the true objectives of their actions, stressing that Colombia is not an enemy and, on the contrary, can play a supporting role in solving regional problems.

The president flatly rejected accusations linking him to illicit activities such as drug trafficking and terrorism, stating that these accusations seek to undermine bilateral security cooperation. The president maintained that there are actors interested in undermining collaboration between Colombia and the United States and indicated that any rupture in relations would not isolate the country, as there are European allies committed to the fight against organized crime.

True, drug trafficking is trying to create an explosive schism between Colombia and the United States, but we must not forget that elements of worm-like origin, based in Florida, have Rubio as a dolphin to promote destructive and completely subversive plans against Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Rubio has bought the Panamanian president to participate in imperialist plots against China, promoted the almost complete entry of US military enclaves into the isthmus, and completely exposed the Salvadoran president, using him in his plots against the government of Nicolás Maduro.

There's much more, but both Rubio and his Cuban-born worm-mongers are well portrayed by Randy Alonso in Cubadebate:

“Nothing new under the sun; the four congressmen represent Florida, the den that houses the most elite of the Latin American far right and the biggest thieves the region has ever produced, the place where Bolsonaro sought refuge for a time, the place that just rolled out the red carpet for Javier Milei and his chainsaw, the place from which the perpetrators of numerous terrorist acts against Cuba have departed and from where some of the leaders of the assault on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, marched.”

For Petro, the international conspiracy to overthrow him has placed Mario Díaz-Balart at the center of the scandal. According to the non-progressive Spanish newspaper El País, former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, in collaboration with leaders of the Colombian right, held unofficial meetings with Díaz-Balart in Washington, with the purpose of promoting what Petro publicly described as an attempted "coup d'état." These meetings, which had eyewitnesses according to El País, were based on the narrative that Petro was not in a position to rule and that he should be removed from power.

The case not only reflects the diplomatic tensions between Colombia and the United States, but also confirms that the political pressure networks operating from South Florida remain active, defending historical interests and acting with the capacity to influence Washington's strategic decisions. Investigations to establish the existence, scope, and perpetrators of this conspiracy against President Petro remain open, both in the Colombian justice system and internationally, to understand why the failed attempt to make Colombian society believe that Petro was unfit to continue as president of Colombia.

BEFORE THE REVELATION

Before El País revealed how the plot against Petro was hatched, Díaz-Balart had already held meetings with former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva and with leaders of the Colombian right. He then countered the accusation that Petro should not remain president because he was supposedly a "drug addict," an argument they tried to use as justification for the plot to overthrow him.

As early as January 26, he published a message announcing "serious" consequences if Petro did not comply with the Trump administration's wishes: "President Gustavo Petro is unnecessarily destroying the special relationship between Colombia and the United States. It is time for Petro to reconsider his stance toward the United States before the consequences become even more serious," the far-right congressman wrote, responding to the Colombian government's refusal to accept flights carrying deported migrants who were subjected to grave humiliations that Petro described as undignified for a human being: traveling in handcuffs without convictions or even an indictment. This refusal sparked the ire of US President Donald Trump.

Fifteen days later, on February 11, presidential pre-candidate Vicky Dávila, close to major business leaders and the Colombian far right, met with Díaz-Balart in the United States. “I told him that Colombia is not Petro and that we must avoid the imposition of sanctions against our country at all costs. Only our 50 million Colombians would suffer from them. This would only benefit Petro and his destructive political project,” he said. Weeks later, Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Colombia and other countries. Dávila stayed in the United States for a week.

Almost two months later, on 24 March, a group of Colombian congressmen, declared in opposition to Petro, Katherine Miranda (Partido Verde), Lorena Ríos (Colombia Justa Libres), Honorio Henríquez (Centro Democrático), Juan Carlos Garcés (U Party), Mauricio Gómez (Liberal), Nicolás Echeverry (Conservative) and Carlos Abraham Jiménez (Cambio Radical), traveled to the United States to meet with congressmen Mario Díaz-Balart and Henry Cuellar, with the purpose of reactivating a bipartisan committee that was established in 2009 during the government of Álvaro Uribe.

At the time, Petro denounced an institutional blockade by these parties, which had scuttled the labor reform in the Senate's Seventh Committee without even being debated. The president's response was to call for a popular consultation, which put these congressmen in an awkward position and they started talking about a coup against Congress. The main "leader of the band", as Petro called him, was precisely the president of the Senate, the conservative Efraín Cepeda, who also participated in the meeting in Washington.

On that day, Díaz Balart said: "We are very concerned about what is happening in Colombia... We are concerned about the possible deprivation of the rule of law, but what remains highly positive is the relationship with Congress". He also tried to compare the Petro government with "the dictatorships of the region like that of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela," the same government that in the past the administration of Donald Trump attempted to overthrow by force, as happened with the failed Operation Gideon in May 2020, an attempted armed incursion into Venezuela involving former Venezuelan military personnel and agents linked to the United States and Colombia, according to a report by the British Brodcasting Corporation.

Díaz-Balart insisted that the meeting sought to "strengthen this alliance, which has greatly benefited both countries [...] by combating narcoterrorism and promoting the national security interests of the United States and Colombia, as well as working with the Colombian people to advance the common goals of stability, prosperity, and democratic governance." Efraín Cepeda, for his part, issued an ambiguous statement referring to "bilateral issues" such as migration, drug trafficking, and trade relations. "The Colombian Congress has the full support of the United States Congress," he concluded.

POWERFUL WORM-FILLING

Beyond the family is the Cuban-American power that influences the relationship between Washington and Latin America. Its most prominent exponent is Marco Rubio. When Trump appointed him to the cabinet, Díaz-Balart said of Rubio: "he (will do) an exceptional job promoting a firm and focused foreign policy, and will offer invaluable experience and advice as National Security advisor."

Both Rubio and Díaz-Balart have been linked to political networks within the Cuban-American community. In addition to the “anti-communist” agenda and their roots, they are linked by the anti-Castro lobby. One of the most powerful in the Capitol. Foreign Policy magazine described it as “the most powerful lobby in Washington is not the NRA (gun lobby), it is the Castro-hating right-wing that has Obama's bureaucrats terrified and inert.”

To illustrate his radicalism: in 2014, when pop idols Jay-Z and Beyoncé celebrated their wedding anniversary in Cuba, Rubio demanded an investigation into them for violating the US embargo on the island. Analyst William LeoGrande, a professor at American University in Washington, wrote in Foreign Policy: “This aggressive foreign policy lobby succeeded in preventing rational debate about an anachronistic policy, intimidating anyone who dared to question it.”

The truth is that even academic articles have questioned the effectiveness of this Cuban lobby, which in more than fifty years has failed to achieve its goal of overthrowing the socialist government in Havana. It has also been accused of being a facade, disguised as a defense of human rights, to conceal other interests.

Researchers at the University of Denver summarize it this way: “US policy toward Cuba is nothing more than an extension of Florida policy by other means.”

This hard policy of Florida, which promotes careers like those of Mario Díaz-Balart and Marco Rubio, has been the protagonist of various interventions in Latin America. From the military support to anti-Castro groups trained by the CIA, which were defeated at Playa Girón and whose operation was developed in the US, to the recent attempts of mercenaries in the failed Operation Gideon that sought the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

There is also less visible support, such as that of an organization based in South Florida that has received funding from the U.S. government and that has been trying to exert political influence on the island for more than 40 years: the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), founded by a Cuban exile and accused of financing terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles, who died in 2018. Posada Carriles admitted in an interview with The New York Times that he had received more than $200,000 from the CANF for his operations. Posada Carriles, accused of international terrorism for decades, died in 2018 in Miami without facing trial for many of the attacks he committed.

This organization, the CANF, has supported Marco Rubio and other conservative Cuban-American politicians. Over the years, its agenda has diversified and it has sought to influence other countries, such as Venezuela. (Text: Arnaldo Musa/Cubasí) (Photo: Cubasí)