The Central Committee official and former diplomat in Bogotá died in a car crash
14ymedio, July 4, 2024, Madrid — Omar Rafael García Lazo, an official of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, died this Wednesday in a car crash when he was returning to Havana from a “work mission.” The announcement was made by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) itself, which mourns the loss of a “valuable and honest comrade, as well as a father, son and dedicated husband to his family.”
But García Lazo was also many other things: to the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba he was a repressor; in Colombia he was a persona non grata, expelled for being a spy for the Island; for Nodal (News from Latin America and the Caribbean), an Argentine agency with a marked leftist line, he was a political analyst .
García Lazo, born in Sandino (Pinar del Río) and just 44 years old, studied Social Communications and completed two years of social service in the ideological department of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), from where he moved, in 2007, to the Department of International Relations. In a rapidly rising career, he was promoted to civil servant and held that position from November 2010 to 2017, when he left for Colombia as first secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Bogotá.
In May 6, 2021, he was abruptly expelled from Colombia, which also named him ’persona non grata’
On May 6, 2021, he was abruptly expelled from Colombia, which also named him persona non grata. At that time, the Foreign Ministry did not give any explanation for the decision and simply claimed that he “carried out activities incompatible with his functions” and that international protocol was followed after verifying the state of the actions that he did not carry out. Havana, for its part, claimed to be unaware of the reasons and pointed out that it was a smokescreen, as it coincided with the protests against the Government of then president Iván Duque.
“This unjustified action is intended to divert the attention of the international community and Colombian society from the violent repression of the military and police forces against protesters, which has caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said. It added that the “unfounded decision” was an “unfriendly act that affects the normal functioning of the Cuban Embassy in Colombia” and assured that its diplomats “fulfill their obligations seriously and rigorously.”
At that time, García Lazo had been included in the list of Cuban repressors for “advising and participating in acts of vandalism and destabilization” for his work at the Colombian Embassy. Not in vain, in 2020 the Colombian magazine Semana had published a report in which it called him out for this reason and also argued that he was the right-hand man of the then Cuban ambassador, José Luis Ponce, whom it accused of being a spy for Cuban intelligence since the 1970s.
García Lazo had also attacked the Cuban opposition from Colombia, specifically members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI)
García Lazo had also attacked the Cuban opposition from Colombia, specifically members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), whose leaders include the imprisoned artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo. “If Valladares’ wheelchair with Mitterrand*, Camaján [Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz] decorated by Bush, and Marta Guacamole [Martha Beatriz Roque] with Obama couldn’t defeat the Revolution, a flag-waving bastard with Trump couldn’t make a difference,” he said on Facebook when the Cuban police stormed the building where several MSI members were on a hunger strike against the arrest of rapper Denis Solís — which had already lasted 10 days — and arrested them.
“If Valladares’ wheelchair with Mitterrand, Camaján decorated with Bush, and Marta Guacamole with Obama could not defeat the Revolution, a flag-waving coward with Trump could not make a difference,” he said on Facebook when the Cuban police stormed the building and arrested several MSI members who were on a hunger strike that had already lasted 10 days, protesting the arrest of rapper Denis Solís. “If your option is the pandemic and dollarized, choose: Covid or cops,” he added.
For these acts, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba finds that García Lazo has committed threats, defamation and incitement to violence.
The Colombian press claims that Duque’s government spent the entire beginning of 2021 meditating on the decision, despite the fact that the friction with the Cuban regime had been going on for a long time. In January 2019, Colombia asked Havana to hand over the members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were then on the island, as part of its delegation in the peace talks.
The request came after the attack against the Cadet School that left 22 dead and whose authorship was acknowledged by the guerrillas. The Cuban government then claimed that it could not extradite them, since it would violate the bases of the agreement. That decision cost a diplomatic confrontation and, in the long run, the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism drawn up by the United States.
“This person was looking at how to promote protests and destabilization in political groups, which represents a violation of the Vienna Convention”
Iván Duque did not confirm the reasons for García Lazo’s expulsion until the end of 2022, when in an interview with Juan Manuel Cao he gave the yes. “The answer is affirmative, it is yes, when we were going to expel another one they realized and removed him. But one thing is the exercise of diplomatic function and another is putting your fingers in all the sockets to see which one has current, and this person was looking at how to promote protests and destabilization in political groups, which represents a violation of the Vienna Convention,” said the former president.
Since then, García Lazo has devoted himself mainly to his work in the Department of International Relations of the Party Central Committee and written some articles as an analyst for the media.
According to official information, his body will be cremated and his ashes displayed at the Calzada y K Funeral Home in El Vedado, “where he will receive tributes from his colleagues, friends and family.”
*An international campaign for the release of Armando Valladares was led by then-President Francois Mitterrand of France, who made a personal appeal to Fidel Castro.
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