or the first time since independence, a Colombian presidential inauguration is being held outside Bogota: in Cali, capital of Valle del Cauca, where Abelardo De la Espriella took the oath Thursday, received by Governor Dilia Francisca Toro and Mayor Alvaro Alejandro Eder. Nasser Bourita represented King Mohammed VI there, according to Morocco’s official news agency MAP, alongside Morocco’s ambassador to Colombia, Farida Loudaya. A protocol appearance, on the surface, but one whose timing escapes no one: Bogota holds a seat on the UN Security Council through 2027, and the Western Sahara file remains open there.
The Polisario Front understands this well: it has spent weeks pressing Colombian diplomacy to bring the Western Sahara question before the Council, hoping to find a Latin American relay the file struggles to hold elsewhere on the continent. That is precisely the ground Rabat, according to Le Desk, means to secure first: consolidating ties with Bogota before the new Colombian presidency settles its own line on the Sahara. The Cali ceremony lasted a day; its consequences will play out at the United Nations for months.
Photo: Mohamed Abbassi, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Yabiladi - Western Sahara: Polisario asks Colombia to bring the issue before the UN Security Council
