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President Gustavo Petro calls on leaders from 19 nations and the EU to ‘rebuild the trail of peace’ in Latin America.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has hosted world leaders in Bogotá for a one-day convention to debate the political state of affairs in Venezuela, the place critics accuse the administration of Nicolás Maduro of stifling opposition.
Representatives from 19 nations and the European Union met within the San Carlos Palace on Tuesday, the place Petro opened the assembly with a speech.
In it, he referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood to carry sanctions in opposition to Venezuela, however he additionally pressed for Maduro to schedule democratic elections within the nation.
“The historical past of Latin America is in our fingers,” Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, informed the diplomats.
He depicted Latin America at a crossroads: Both the attendees may “mark a path that leads towards warfare and the deconstruction of democracy, or we will rebuild the trail of peace and democracy”.
Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, the UK and the USA attended the convention, which was meant to reignite stalled talks between Maduro’s administration and Venezuela’s political opposition.
The 2 sides had beforehand met in Mexico Metropolis to barter a decision to the nation’s political deadlock, however these talks sputtered final December.
Neither of the opposing events was in attendance at Tuesday’s convention. However the opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform, voiced assist for the assembly, although some factions questioned Colombia’s function as mediator.
Since its 2018 presidential elections, Venezuela has confronted a divided authorities. Maduro was overwhelmingly reelected for a second six-year time period — however solely after a few of Venezuela’s most distinguished opposition events have been barred from taking part.
That led critics of Maduro’s socialist authorities to declare the election illegitimate. After Maduro’s inauguration in January 2019, Juan Guaidó, the opposition chief and then-president of Venezuela’s Nationwide Meeting, issued a declaration establishing a state of emergency. He additionally named himself “interim president” instead of Maduro.
Some nations, just like the US, selected to recognise the opposition authorities over Maduro’s and impose heavy sanctions in opposition to Venezuela.
Nonetheless, in latest months, Latin America has seen a wave of left-wing leaders elected to high positions in authorities, main some nations to renew relations with Maduro’s authorities.
They embrace Colombia, which restored diplomatic ties underneath Petro, and Brazil, which renewed ties underneath leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was inaugurated in January.
Guaidó himself has misplaced a lot of the opposition’s assist, and in December, members of the opposition voted to dissolve his authorities and take away him from the place of “interim president”.
However, on Monday, Guaidó crossed the border from Venezuela into Colombia “on foot” in an try to fulfill with the diplomats at Tuesday’s convention.
Colombia’s overseas ministry, nonetheless, introduced that migration authorities had escorted Guaidó to Bogotá’s El Dorado airport, as he had crossed the border “irregularly”.
On board a airplane to the US metropolis of Miami, Guaidó denounced his remedy as an extension of the repression he allegedly obtained underneath the Maduro authorities. “The persecution of the dictatorship sadly unfold to Colombia as we speak,” he mentioned in a video posted to Twitter.
However on Tuesday, Petro issued a rebuke of the previous opposition chief’s statements.
“Mr Guaidó was not expelled,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s higher that lies don’t seem in politics. Mr Guaidó had an settlement to journey to the US. We allowed it for humanitarian causes regardless of the unlawful entry into the nation.”
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