Guaidó reproaches Gustavo Petro’s position before the Venezuelan regime

File photo of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido at a press conference in Caracas June 14, 2022. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/

The partially recognized interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, referred on the morning of Friday, August 12, to the intentions of Colombia and the Nicolás Maduro regime to reestablish diplomatic relations, declared when appointing new ambassadors last Thursday. Among other things, he questioned the priorities of President Gustavo Petro and recalled the need for protection for migrants and refugees from the neighboring country.

According to the Venezuelan opponent, he expected from “a president with a leftist ideology” more sympathy with the people who had to flee their country of origin because of the dictatorship. “I would have expected, as a Venezuelan, that President Petro had started specifically for mefor attention to the most vulnerable, for the protection of a migrant and refugee population fleeing a dictatorship, human rights violations, and hunger,” he assured.

“No [esperaba que Petro empezara por] talk about one ambassador or another, with an implicit —because I don’t know yet— acknowledgment of a dictator, who rather advocates leading the dissidents of the FARC, the ELN, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, the human trafficking, smuggling, among other things,” Guaidó said.

However, Guaidó affirmed that he respects the decision of the Executive Branch of Colombia to diplomatically recognize or reject the Maduro regime, since “we respect popular sovereignty. It is exactly what we are fighting for in Venezuela: to have a free and fair election so that it is the people of Venezuela who decide the future, as President Petro was well-elected.”

Anyway, the partially recognized president recalled in his message that Venezuela has been waiting for “a free and fair election (…) since 2018, for which Maduro is considered a dictator, for violating human rights, pointed out in the International Criminal Court for displacing indigenous communities, for ethnocide in Venezuela, for ending the environment. He would have expected a reflection in that direction, not simply appointing two people, one in each capital”.

The also disputed president of the National Assembly of Venezuela affirmed that the neighboring country will be key to an eventual peace process in Colombia, taking into account that the regime —says Guaidó— is hiding figures from Colombian and international terrorism, on the subject of the controversy over the plane held in Buenos Aires.

The opponent took the opportunity to thank the management of the now former president of Colombia, Iván Duque, in the cause of confronting the regime and protecting refugees.

“One million Venezuelans already legalized thanks to the temporary protection status, initially promoted by President Duque, brother, in an example gesture for the world, a great job. 63,456 university documents validated free of charge before Colombia. 1,675 stateless children, who did not have identification, with their birth certificate,” he mentioned.

Finally, Guaidó said that he has had informal meetings with Gustavo Petro —whose details he refused to reveal— and that he is seeking to have a formal dialogue with him to discuss the issues raised.

It should be remembered that the regime broke relations with Bogotá at the beginning of 2019, after Venezuelan opponents tried to cross from Colombian territory with trucks loaded with food and medicine. At the time, Maduro said that aid was masking an opposition coup attempt with the support of Washington.

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