Latin America was living since the beginning of the cold war with a lot of internal ideological tension, between the Leninist Marxist left and the conservative right. This impacts its policy as well as its domestic policy. In that period of world history, the Marxist-Leninist movement in Latin America’s countries brought the concept of “the right of auto-determination of people” to the forefront, as well as support for the decolonization of countries from European states. Also, many terrorist movements had been created at that time, mostly in Colombia, like The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and The April 19 Movement (M-19), known for bombings, bombings, assassinations, hijackings, and especially drug trafficking, dealing with polisario and some Algerian army officers.
[bs-quote quote=”The first is the transit of cocaine from South America en route to Europe, which transits through West Africa and the Sahel region … This drug-trafficking route also allegedly depends on the involvement of some Algerian army officers, and Sahrawi refugees close to the polisario – the major refugee camp of Tindouf is situated on Algerian soil – are known to be involved in trafficking cannabis, cigarettes and even cocaine.” style=”default” align=”left” color=”” author_name=”European Parliament Report: “Algeria’s underused potential in security cooperation in the Sahel region” June 2013″ author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]
With the end of the cold war, and the beginning of a new era of international relations, colonial times came to an end with the wave of support for the right to self-determination.
Since the Green March, the question of the Moroccan Sahara has been subject to this wave of support for the right of self-determination, in which the late King Hassan II was in favor of the referendum, based on the list that had been issued by the Spanish government before 1975, that included 74 000 Moroccan Sahraoui. At that time, one of the most famous and powerful leaders of the left-wing in Morocco, Abderrahim Bouabid, the leader of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, expressed his refusal to organize a referendum over the Moroccan Sahara. This idea of the referendum had been a good solution till the sahraoui camps in Algeria became full of other nationals, not only Moroccan sahraoui residents, but also other nationalities coming from sub-Saharan Africa either from Mauritania, Mali, or Libya… deprived of their basic rights of having an identity or refugee cards, despite the fact that Algeria promotes the discourse pretending that it defends sahraouis as refugees in its land.
The end of the cold war marked the end of the propaganda of standing for “self-determination”, and the presentation of Morocco of the “autonomy plan” to the UN, which had been considered realistic, serious, and credible. Many countries removed their recognition of polisario, such as Afghanistan, India, and Paraguay. Further States like the USA, UAE, and Senegal … recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over the Sahara, Spain, Germany, the Netherland, and many other countries are supporting the autonomy plan as the most credible and serious solution over the disputed territory in the UN.
In August 2022, two leftist Latin American governments expressed opposite points of view over the Moroccan Sahara. The new Colombian president, and an ex-member of the M-19 presented previously, changed its stance on its recognition of the Moroccan Sahara and re-established its relations with the front of polisario, exactly after his inauguration that occurred on August 7th, 2022.
The new Colombian government of Gustavo Petro reestablished its relations with the polisario front after a long freeze of relations. This move comes a few months after Colombia’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara on the 28th of October 2021. Following this decision, the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Marta Lucia Ramirez, announced the instructions given to the new Ambassador of Colombia in Rabat to extend the consular jurisdiction of the Embassy of Colombia in the Kingdom of Morocco to include the Sahara, thus supporting the “autonomy plan”.
The relations between Colombia and the leaders of the polisario front are not new, they go back to the period of the cold war, more precisely to 1985, when the Colombian government had recognized the validity of the Joint Communique signed with the polisario. Relations with polisario were severed until 2001 when Andrés Pastrana, a conservative president, came to power.
Who is the Newly Elected President of Colombia?
Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing and newly elected president, was one of the former fighters of Colombia’s M19 guerilla group in 1974, known for leading the April 19 Movement that attacked companies and embassies, drug trafficking, kidnapping and hijacks, before it demobilized in 1989 to become a legal political party in the 1990s.
The background of the new president says a lot about his ideology and political orientation, especially his conviction on “the right of self-determination”. After seizing power, Petro acted swiftly on his convictions and drastically changed Colombia’s orientation by re-establishing relations with the separatists without taking into consideration Colombia’s stance on the Moroccan Sahara cemented by the previous government. Going even further, the President of the Colombian senate and Colombia’s foreign affairs minister met with Brahim Boughali, President of the Algerian National People’s Assembly, who also attended Gustavo Petro’s inauguration.
With this brutal and sudden change in the Colombian State’s foreign policy orientation, one may wonder about the future of the agreements signed between the Moroccan Kingdom and Colombia related to visas, the opening of the air market and services, the fight against drug trafficking, and even academic, cultural, and scientific exchanges?
Peru changed its statement over the Sahara question:
Being the black sheep of Peru and fixating on his statement for the third time, on the 10th of September, once again and for the 3rd time, the Peruvian president Pedro Castillo had changed the state position over polisario, provoking the 4th resignation of the government since Castillo’s inauguration in July 2021. The state position before his election was the withdrawal of polisario support in 1996.
His autocratic way of governing, despite the state craft, led to severe governmental crises which can be explained by his illegal “combatant” past.
As a matter of fact, in his youth, Pedro Castillo was a member of the peasant patrol that was supporting the organization Sendero Luminoso before combating it, as milicias do in weak states depending on their interests of the moment. Several members of his government like Guido Bellido supported the Sendero Luminoso group. In the other hand, the previous foreign minister Hector Béjar has been responsible for terrorist acts in the 70s, he founded the National Liberation Army (ELN) in 1962
Despite the fact that 14 countries out of 33 Latin American countries presently support the polisario’s clan, many others had removed their recognition or just frozen their relations with it, or started supporting the Moroccan plan of autonomy.
It is undeniable that things are changing, namely in terms of foreign policy orientation. For Morocco, even some leftist governments are leaving behind their support for polisario. As of now, clarifications are still needed from Colombia and Peru on the sudden change of stance on Morocco’s autonomy plan.
Since the Berlin wall fell, it became more obvious that the international scene is not divided into two poles anymore. The fashion of so-called “pro-self-determination” and separatist movements had passed. The discourse about it decreased accordingly to the fall of a two-block world as groups weakened states and shook their neighborhood by triggering terror while pursuing crime through human, armes and drug trafficking.