Avianca will operate the Bogotá–Havana route using Airbus A320 aircraft, each with a 180-passenger capacity. The daily flights are projected to offer over 2,500 seats weekly between the two cities. Passengers can now purchase tickets through Avianca’s website, mobile app, physical sales locations, or travel agencies.

David Alemán, Avianca’s Sales Director for Colombia and South America, stated that this new route will enhance international connectivity, allowing travelers to reach Havana via Bogotá. “This direct route provides over 2,500 weekly seats, supporting our commitment to make air travel accessible to more people,” Alemán noted.

Route Itinerary: Bogotá–Havana

Frequency: Daily, starting December 16

U.S. Travel Restrictions

U.S. citizens, residents, or any individual departing from or transiting through the United States to Cuba are prohibited from traveling for tourism purposes. U.S. persons may only travel to Cuba if they fall under one of 12 categories permitted by the U.S. government or hold a specific license. Further details on permitted travel categories can be found in the U.S. regulations here.

During this global crisis, local diplomacy has shown that it has a key role to play. The internationalization of local governments, especially through decentralized cooperation and foreign investment, generates direct benefits for cities and regions.

Some cities have used their international ties to exchange information and material support according to their possibilities and needs. Likewise, there is cooperation between cities in the same country as in Colombia, where Medellin, with the joint action of the business sector & academia, has supported less economically favored Colombian cities such as Leticia, Quibdó, Ibagué and San Andrés, among others, which shows national solidarity between multiple regions.

However, there have been cases of misinterpretation of some types of international cooperation, such as what happened with the Magdalena Government and the Medellin Mayor’s Office seeking to hire doctors of Cuban origin to supposedly reinforce the local medical team in each region. In this case, nothing is more wrong than looking for external solutions to internal problems. On the contrary: it would aggravate the problem. Although international humanitarian aid exists, and it is true that crisis management solutions must be in the hands of those who know local conditions, cultures, and needs.

The opinions of guest editorial contributors are their own and not necessarily those of Finance Colombia, its publisher, editors, or staff.

Cuba has received international recognition in terms of health coverage for its entire population, with the limitations that we all know. Likewise, the advances in some medical research in the field of oncology that are real have been valued. But from there to, its medical care system is available to countries with greater health resources and whose characteristics they do not know; with the background that we have today of its work in several countries whose results are unfortunate; added to the business model, by means of which, a percentage is paid to the Cuban State and another, to a lesser extent, to the doctors who perform the work, leaves much to be desired, as the UN says in a report in the beginning of this year that qualifies as “forced labor” its missions abroad.

This type of mission has a more political view than health component; more investigative (political or industrial espionage) than teaching; more commercial than humanitarian. These types of health brigades are quite different from those deployed by countries like the USA, Brazil, France, and even Colombia itself with friendly countries. In this sense, it is very convenient to coordinate the actions offered by international cooperation with the governing body of the country’s diplomacy, which is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and supported by the Presidential Cooperation Agency to avoid distortions in regional requests that generate setbacks in contacts with some countries such as Cuba, which Colombia has a tense relationship for political and security reasons. This is common sense. It is as if Germany asked countries like Haiti or Russia for medical help, with whom it makes no sense for widely known reasons.

International cooperation has revitalized various initiatives of Medellin’s diplomacy in organizations such as United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG); Metropolis; the AL-Las Project; IDB-Cities; Global Resilient Cities; C40 and more than a hundred similar organizations around the world, among others, that have allowed a dynamic exchange of successful and collaborative experiences on issues of common interest.

Therefore, crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on city diplomacy because local governments are also innovating in their external relations as players of international law that they are and generating new spaces of cooperation without generating unnecessary political controversies.

Photo credit: Laura LaRose via Flickr – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license

The inaugural flight from the Colombian capital to Santo Domingo’s Las Américas International Airport will take place on April 13. This will become the second route between the two countries offered by Wingo, which already maintains a flight between Bogotá and resort hotspot Punta Cana.

The first flight from Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport to Curaçao International Airport will take off on April 11.

Tickets for both locations are already for sale through the company’s website.

Wingo, which is a subsidiary of Panama-based Copa Airlines, has been slowly expanding its list of destinations since its start in 2016. Unlike discount market rival VivaAir, and leading airlines servicing Colombia, Avianca and LATAM, it has focused less on general connectivity across the Andean country’s populations centers and more on top tourist destinations and short-haul flights around the Caribbean.

The company flies from Bogotá, Cartagena, Cali, and Barranquilla to Colombian getaway island San Andrés, for example, and offers flights from the its Bogotá hub to Aruba, Cancún, Punta Cana, Havana, and Panama City, among other destinations.

Photo: Signature colorful buildings in Curaçao. (Photo credit: Nelo Hotsuma)

Negotiations began last year in Quito, Ecuador, and five rounds of talks had been completed, including an extended ceasefire that lasted for most of the final four months of 2017 before expiring and ELN members allegedly carried out several attacks on both police stations on the Caribbean coast and road infrastructure in central Colombia.

In April, ELN was also blamed for killing two Ecuadorian journalists and their driver near the Colombian border, a belligerent attack that preceded the government in Quito pulling out as a guarantor host for ongoing negotiations.

“I have asked the foreign minister of Ecuador to put the brakes on the conversations and put the brakes on our role as a guarantor of the peace process while the ELN does not commit to ending terrorist actions,” said Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno in an interview with Colombian news outlet NTN24.

Weeks later, Colombian President Manuel Santos announced that the dialogues would continue in Cuba, the same country that hosted around four years of formal talks that led to a peace deal in late 2016 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

According to Santos, the two sides, which began talking again on Thursday, May 10, will first focus on carving out a renewed ceasefire before moving on to higher level issues concerning a larger framework that will lead to group’s full demobilization and disarmament.

“I have faith,” said Santos from Germany during an overseas trip. “All my life, I’ve been a born optimist … It will be difficult, but there is no alternative. I think the ELN also understands that there is no alternative.”

While the talks are re-engaging, there remains a large degree of skepticism that any real progress will be made in the short term. Santos, who has been the main driver of talks with guerrilla groups and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for coming to terms with FARC, will be leaving office in August and is currently occupying the presidential home of Casa de Nariño in Bogotá as a lame duck head of state.

The first round of the presidential election will be held in a few weeks on May 27. With no one candidate currently holding a majority in polls, most analysts expect a follow-up run-off election between the two highest vote getters in June.

In October, Wingo announced that it would begin operating in Colombia as another lower-cost airline in the country in addition to VivaColombia, Easy Fly, and Satena, the state-controlled carrier that specializes in flights to remote areas of the country. Combined, they will all put some price pressure on the dominant players Avianca, LATAM (formerly LAN Colombia), and Copa Airlines.

The ceremonial water bath was attended by several tourism and transportation officials in Panama, including: Gustavo Him, administrator of Panama’s Tourism Authority, Rosa Muńoz, director of the Panama Pacifico International Airport, Leo Ángel González, administrator of the Panama Pacific Agency, and Joseph Fidan, general manager of the nearby Tocumen International Airport.

¡Nuestro bautizo de agua en Panamá!✈💜👐 #WingoDespega pic.twitter.com/UvtPp7OFEt

— Wingo (@wingo) December 1, 2016

The Cartagena-to-Panama flight is one of 12 international routes, along with five domestic routes, for the Colombia-based Wingo, which is starting off operations with four Boeing 737-700s from its parent company Copa Airlines. Each has a fully economy class configuration with 142 seats.

Early on, the domestic coverage will consist of connecting nation’s biggest cities to the Colombian island San Andrés, which sits in the Caribbean off the coast of Nicaragua.

Wingo’s first flight, from Cartagena to Panama, had a welcoming party ready when it landed. (Credit: Panama Pacific Agency)

These following are the routes that are operating so far.

Domestic

• Bogotá to Cartagena
• Bogotá to San Andrés
• Cartagena to San Andrés
• Barranquilla to San Andrés
• Cali to San Andrés

International

• Bogotá to Panama City
• Bogotá to Mexico City
• Bogotá to Quito, Ecuador
• Bogotá to Caracas, Venezuela
• Bogotá to Havana, Cuba
• Bogotá to Cancún, Mexico
• Bogotá to Aruba
• Bogotá to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Medellín to Panama City
• Cali to Panama City
• Panama City to San Jose, Costa Rica
• San Jose to Guatemala City

Main photo credit: Wingo

Speaking from Havana, Cuba, negotiators of the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC outlined the changes in the new agreement that aim to appease the opposition to an earlier accord that was struck down by a popular referendum on October 2. The president himself then spoke to the nation in a televised address from Bogotá.

The bulk of that 297-page document remains the same, but key amendments address the justice process and confinement provisions for war criminals, democratic participation by the political party that FARC will become once it demobilizes militarily, collaboration with law enforcement to fight drug-trafficking, protection of privately held assets, and the disbursement of FARC property that will go towards victim reparations.

Photo: “This agreement — renewed, adjusted, specified, and clarified — must unite us, not divide us,” said President Santos, pictured here with the Colombian military earlier in the week. (Credit: Presidencia de la República)

Santos said that the government altered 56 of its 57 provisions based upon some 500 proposals submitted since the failed plebiscite to ratify the previous agreement. The president now hopes that his political rivals, and the 50.2% of the voters that said “No” at the ballot box, can accept this “better” deal so that the nation can get beyond the current “fragile ceasefire” with FARC and begin to implement a formal peace.

“This agreement — renewed, adjusted, specified, and clarified — must unite us, not divide us,” said Santos. He added that, “This new peace agreement with the FARC resumes and reflects the proposals and ideas of all those who participated in the great national dialogue” while responding to and clarifying “the concerns that many had against the words, the agreement’s meaning, or its implementation.”

One key change that could have a substantial effect on the nation’s economy is the new mandate that all post-conflict investments will now be made over a 15-year timeframe instead of 10 years. This change was made with fiscal stability in mind, as many of those who voted against the original deal were worried that its aggressive development and social spending provisions would jeopardize the nation’s financial footing.

New conditions, although not detailed fully by the president or lead negotiator Humberto De la Calle, have also been included to ensure full respect for private property. Other worries have surrounded how land reform provisions would be implemented, with landholders concerned that disputed holdings could be appropriated for redistribution to victims.

The government also says it added new safeguards to protect third parties — including companies and other organizations — that could be accused of financing FARC and other combatant groups. Individuals who could be considered to have aided either side will not have to appear in civilian court to defend themselves.

In terms of FARC assets, the government is also now clarifying its intentions to ensure that the property and holdings currently in the hands of guerrillas go to victims. Upon demobilizing and submitting to the justice process, FARC must now declare and inventory all its assets in full.

The next steps towards a formal peace remain unclear. It seems unlikely that Santos will once again put the accord up for a public vote. He has previously suggested that he has the authority to submit the agreement directly to Congress for approval before implementation begins.

Some of the most divisive elements of the earlier accord remain largely unchanged, however. These include the perceived impunity for war criminals who won’t face jail time in actual prisons and FARC being guaranteed 10 seats in Congress over the next two elections.

The new agreement does include more details about the nature of the “restrictions of freedom” that will take the place of prison time for former combatants who fully cooperate with the peace tribunals. It also takes decision-making authority away from foreign judges in the justice process. And it cuts federal funding for a FARC political party by 30%, while preventing former members from running for a few congressional seats reserved for officials from areas most affected by the conflict.

But these are likely to be seen as small changes by the opposition, which could continue to fight the agreement. For starters, former President Alvaro Uribe, the chief political rival to Santos and leader of the opposition to the past deal, held his own press conference last night as well.

Uribe said that though he did meet with Santos yesterday before the formal announcement, he has not seen the new document in full. He also noted that the president should not presume this is a “definitive” agreement until it can be reviewed thoroughly by Uribe and others who remain skeptical.

Santos said that he would provide the full agreement to key opposition members today. “We are going to divulge it widely starting tomorrow so that it is known by all,” said the president last night.

1. To accept the resignation of Mr. Gonzalo Restrepo Lopez as member and chairman of the Board of Directors.
   The Board of Directors gave special recognition to Mr. Restrepo’s work as chairman, in which he placed his unique human, managerial and leadership qualities at Ecopetrol’s service. The Board of Directors wishes him success in his new endeavor as a member of the government’s negotiating team in the peace process in Havana.
2. To appoint Mr. Luis Fernando Ramirez, an independent Director, as the new chairman of the Board of Directors.
3. To appoint the engineer Hector Manosalva Rojas, currently Ecopetrol’s Vice President of Development and Production, as the second alternate to Ecopetrol’s President.
4. To appoint Ms. Juliana Alban as Corporate Vice President of Compliance, who will also act as the company’s Compliance Officer.

The Corporate Vice Presidency of Compliance is a unit that was recently approved within Ecopetrol’s organizational structure with the purpose of ensuring the highest standards of compliance and internal controls on the management of the company.