In the late 2000s, Jack Lang was a special emissary of the President of the Republic tasked with relaunching Franco-Cuban dialogue. He came across a familiar figure on his plane to Havana: Jean-Pierre Bel. Passionate about Latin America and a Hispanic speaker, the Socialist Party senator regularly visited Cuba. “I was like all the students in the 1960s,” the parliamentarian recalled to L’Express, evoking an affinity with figures such as Régis Debray, who was close to “Che”. The man also had sentimental ties there, as his partner at the time was Cuban.
A lover of Havana, Jean-Pierre Bel claims to be clear-sighted about a regime that drives its dissidents into exile – when it does not condemn them to prison – but also castigates the role of the United States. “My point of view is that of the Cuban Catholic Church,” he explains. “Cardinal Ortega had known the detention camps of the Castro regime. However, he considered that the policy of the United States after the Cuban revolution was a mistake: imagining that asphyxiating a country is the best method for the people to turn against the regime…” To resolve the “Cuban issue”, Bel advocates the “policy of small steps”.
Emotional reasons
Elected President of the Senate, he established a “Latin America Day” in January 2013 within its walls, which annoys. This marked affinity for Cuba poses a problem for him. In an article in the World, Several PS bigwigs are worried, under cover of anonymity, about their colleague’s comings and goings “for emotional reasons”. He is suspected of eyeing a post as ambassador to Havana more than his job at the Luxembourg Palace. “An article fueled by malicious people”, assures Jean-Pierre Bel.
He left the Senate in 2014, but would never be called Excellency. A few months later, François Hollande appointed him “personal envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean”. He would be at his side during his presidential visit to Cuba in 2015. Retired from political life, Bel still maintains close ties with Havana and Latin America. A member of the honorary presidency of the Cuba Cooperation France association, he is part of the Institute of Advanced Latin American Studies (IHEAL) at the Sorbonne. “There is life after politics,” he says. Politics ends. Not the passions of youth.