2023-04-25 03:01:00
This Tuesday an international summit will be held in Colombia in which some twenty countries will discuss the most appropriate paths to resume negotiations, today frozen, between the ruling party of Nicolás Maduro and part of the opposition. Eight months after he came to power, Colombian President Gustavo Petro last week made a key appointment with his American counterpart Joe Biden at the White House. There, Petro proposed a strategy that consists of gradually lifting the sanctions against Venezuela as progress is made in electoral matters.
“The most certain thing is that there will be a change of perception in the public narrative on the subject of Venezuela.after months of stagnation in the dialogue process in Mexico. It is interesting that the issue of sanctions is at the center of the eventwhich indicates that the consensus for its uprising has embraced international opinion, which already sees the strategies of force and overthrow against the Venezuelan government as overcome,” he assured in dialogue with Page 12 William Seraphimpolitical scientist from the Central University of Venezuela.
Neither representatives of the Maduro government nor the Venezuelan opposition will participate in the meeting in Bogotá, although this Monday the opposition leader Juan Guaidó was surprisingly present in Colombian territory. For the moment, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrell; the foreign ministers of Argentina, santiago cafieroand from Chile, Alberto van Klaverenas well as the secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Gisela Padovan and the former foreign minister of that country, Celso Amorim. The United States will be represented by the White House advisor for Latin America, Juan Gonzalezand the participation of representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway and Germanyamong others.
The opposition, divided
Representatives of the so-called unitary platformled by the opposition and former Venezuelan deputy Gerard Blyde, met on Saturday with Gustavo Petro at a presidential estate in the municipality of Sopó, in central Colombia, in a meeting prior to the meeting this Tuesday in Bogotá. The meeting with Petro was attended by members of the Primero Justicia, Acción Democrática and Un Nuevo Tiempo parties, three of the four main opposition political organizations in Venezuela.
Henrique Capriles, pre-candidate for the primary elections for the Primero Justicia party, said that “If the Colombian government is willing to help us in the Venezuelan democratic solution, the help is welcome”. Leopoldo López, who fled to Spain in October 2018, did not speak publicly on this issue, while Juan Guaido arrived in Colombia before Tuesday’s meeting.
Guaidó said in a statement that he hopes to meet with the international delegations that will participate in the conference. However, The Colombian Foreign Ministry assured that the opponent was not invited to the meeting and, therefore, will not participate. The former deputy, who is prohibited from leaving Venezuela for having several legal proceedings against him, assured that he hopes that this summit will guarantee “that the Maduro regime returns to the negotiating table in Mexico.”
Seraphim assured that, in the case of Guaidó, “if it is a definitive flight from the country, he would be sealing his political destinypassing into ostracism and irrelevance as has happened with other figures who have also made the decision to leave Venezuela”. For the researcher at the Samuel Robinson Institute, the fact that he has not been invited to the summit “certifies the definitive collapse of the political capital that at some point came to gather“.
for his part Alvaro Villarraga Sarmientoa political scientist from the Universidad del Valle, told this newspaper that although the sectors of the Venezuelan opposition have “joint platforms but also differences”, the important thing is that both in the Maduro government and in the opposition sector that approves this meeting “there is a positive expectation towards the initiative of President Petro and increasingly they have joined this initiative”.
The divided Venezuelan opposition set for the October 22 the primaries that will define the candidate who faces the current president in the elections. “It is not so much that the opposition arrives fragmented, because de facto it is, but that the very announcement of the conference has fueled their internal differences“, raised Seraphimfor whom the political leaders closest to Washington and who promote the sanctions policy “see said space as a weakness, which is why they attack the initiative.”
Petro’s role in the negotiation
Colombia was Guaidó’s main ally in the region when it was ruled by Petro’s predecessor, the right-wing Iván Duque, who severed diplomatic relations with Maduro. Petro reversed that process and came to occupy a leading place in the political negotiation in Venezuela. With the arrival of him to the presidency of Colombia last August Relations with Venezuela were reestablished, including the opening of borders between both countriesclosed for years.
For Villarraga Sarmiento, Petro sends a positive international message in favor of multilateralism and the political-diplomatic solution of issues between States, as required by the UN charter. “Colombia makes a commitment to peacedemocracy, the environment and respect for all States in the global arena for the treatment of issues on the regional and global agenda”, explained this Colombian researcher specializing in conflict resolution.
Petro’s initiative on Venezuela corresponds to its intention to obtain a greater international presence and become a protagonist of the change in the political and ideological cycle on the continent. “His reading is that the process in Mexico is stagnant, and in the face of this vacuum, he promotes an intermediate and shared-benefit solution where he can continue to have a stable relationship with Maduro while reinforcing the commitments made with Biden after his visit. In this way , Petro seeks to consolidate itself as a kind of regional interlocutor, a role that Andrés Manuel López Obrador had at the time and that Lula now also seeks to dispute.Serafino warned.
The main cards on the table
On a visit to the United States, the Colombian president proposed last Thursday to his American counterpart, Joe Biden, a gradual deactivation of the sanctions that Washington maintains against Caracas with the commitment that the 2024 presidential elections In Venezuela are held with guarantees. The entry of this country into the Inter-American Human Rights System is also on the agenda.
The Civic Forum of Venezuela, which brings together 690 organizations and 194 civil society actors, supported this Monday the international conference that will be held this Tuesday in the Colombian capital. The forum hopes that the initiative advocates the release of those considered political prisoners, the full guarantee of human rights, as well as justice and reparation for the victims.
This meeting represents an opportunity to incorporate into the negotiation a “robust alliance of countries that are friends of the process” that can work in coordination to comply with the agreements signed in the dialogue in Mexico. “Aware of the difficulties, but encouraged more than ever, we hope for the success of the international conference on Venezuela,” they said from the Civic Forum account on Twitter.
1682396548
#Colombia #organizes #international #summit #reactivate #Venezuelan #dialogue #Diplomats #twenty #countries #meet #Bogotá #Tuesday