With the victory of Gustavo Petro in the presidential elections in Colombia, the opponent of Venezuela Juan Guaidó -proclaimed interim president in 2019- loses another of his mainstays and the decline in support continues, since, as of August 7, the still president of the country, Iván Duque, must give up his chair to the elected.
(Read: Why Americans have returned to Caracas to meet with Chavismo)
Guaidó clings, for more than three years, to the presidential interim, thanks to the support of countries such as the United States, Argentina, Chile or Peru, which has been changing as a change of mandate took place in said nations. Of these, only the North American government maintains its support.
Now it is Colombia’s turn with Petro, who promised in the campaign to reopen the border with Venezuela, closed to vehicular traffic for almost seven years, an issue that he already addressed during a telephone conversation with the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, as soon as they met. his victory.
no government
Petro has not referred to a possible relationship with the Venezuelan oppositionbut the political scientist and managing partner of Log ConsultancyPablo Andrés Quintero told Efe that there will be a reduction in support and even a possible rupture of relations between representatives of Guaidó who live in Colombia and the president-elect.
In his opinion, the opposition could have some kind of relationship with Petro as long as it changes its strategy and “understands that (in) the role play they are the opposition, not the Government (…), the Government is in Miraflores (headquarters of the Venezuelan Presidency).
At the beginning of January, the so-called Unitary Platform of anti-Chavismo agreed to support an extension, until December 31, 2022, to the “interim presidency” of former deputy Guaidó, which several opposition figures opposed, with the which also lost support from within.
The defense of this figure among its ranks and the bloc’s strategy has been diminishing and, at the international level, the United States is the main country that maintains its support for Guaidó, but even this has changed since the triumph of Joe Biden, to the have a direct rapprochement with Maduro.
“The geopolitics of the region is changing more every day, just like in Europe, so the opposition has to understand that and the most important thing is not to depend solely and exclusively on the decisions that emanate (from) an embassy,” he added. Quintero.
The country is not a priority
The political scientist and postgraduate coordinator of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), Fernando Spiritto, explained to Efe that the turn to the left in Latin America is not homogeneous and, he assured, it is striking that the support that Maduro receives from countries like Iran be, in his opinion, “more significant” than the one it has in the region.
The loss of political capital means that the interim government or the opposition in general has ceased to be a reliable interlocutor in Venezuela, in all those factors that support it.
However, he added that Venezuela, at this time, is not a priority on the international stagedue to changes in geopolitics and the impossibility of political change in the country immediately.
“In recent years, the international community, especially the Latin American countries, used up a lot of political capital in the Venezuelan crisis and nothing happened, the Guaidó government was recognized, nothing happened, and I think that the international community decided to withdraw, at least for now,” he stressed.
Spiritto maintained that the shift to the left in the region must be added to the geopolitical situation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the “tremendous weakness of the opposition” that “does not have the capacity to negotiate at this time, because” it has lost it. everything, the political capital has lost it”.
Issues
Although Guaidó has not had a direct conversation with Petro, he did ask him via Twitter to maintain “protection” for Venezuelans living in the Andean country.
Colombian immigration authorities delivered one million regularization documents to migrants coming from the Caribbean nation since the implementation of the Special Temporary Protection Statute began a year ago, which aims to regularize almost two million Venezuelans in Colombia.
The situation of the exiles may be, in Spiritto’s opinion, a problem for the opposition, as well as the fate of the administration of the Monómeros petrochemical company that operates in Barranquilla and is managed by the former deputy’s team since 2019 when he was recognized by Colombia and United States as “interim president”.
Monómeros was subjected last year by the Executive to “maximum surveillance” due to its economic, legal and administrative situation. Last May, Petro criticized the Duque government for having “broken” the petrochemical company, although so far it has not indicated what its future will be.
EFE
More world news
– Bukele promises to toughen the ‘war’ against gangs after triple murder
– UFOs: strange lights reported in the sky of Tijuana, Mexico
– Ecuador: indigenous people see ‘authoritarianism’ in Lasso after suspending dialogues
#figure #Guaidó #losing #weight #Latin #America