Petro: “The opposition and Maduro must reach a political agreement, otherwise an exodus and war will break out in America”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has once again stressed the need for a negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis. “Although the US position is still unclear, the opposition and Maduro must reach a political agreement because, if not, an exodus and war will break out throughout America,” he warned on Monday night on X – formerly Twitter – echoing the information that Washington has not yet recognized Edmundo González as president and urging the parties to negotiate a democratic transition.
“As neighbours and brother nations, Colombia and Venezuela are in an extremely vulnerable situation, and the first thing we have to defend is the people and peace,” Petro added in his message. “My government does not fall into the strategy of war and the separation of peoples. The way is to seek the truth and, based on it, achieve solutions in favour of democracy,” he wrote without mentioning González by name, Maduro’s rival in the July 28 elections in which the opposition claims electoral fraud. The two countries share more than 2,200 kilometres of a porous border, and Colombia is by far the main host country for the Venezuelan diaspora, with nearly three million migrants on its territory.
A State Department spokesman had clarified earlier that, although the United States has recognized Edmundo González as the winner of the presidential election, by endorsing the results of the electoral records published by the opposition, it still does not recognize him as president, and asked Chavismo and the opposition to negotiate a democratic transition.
Along with other Latin American powers governed by the left, Brazil and Mexico, Colombia called four days ago for “an impartial verification of the results.” The Colombian president had already referred previously to the need for “a transparent scrutiny with vote counting, minutes and with oversight by all political forces” in Venezuela, as well as “professional international oversight.”
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