Colombian President Gustavo Petra assured this Sunday (01/12/2025) that the “Venezuelan government” deprived opposition leader Maria Karina Machado of the right to elect and be elected and defended the decision he made to maintain diplomatic relations with Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro.
“We will maintain diplomatic relations not because we are legitimizing an election that was not free from the beginning, when the agreement on the lifting of economic sanctions was broken so that people could vote freely,” Petro said in a lengthy message posted on the X social network. .
“Then, in response, the Venezuelan government followed by depriving Maria Karina of the right to vote and be elected,” he added.
The president insisted that his government would seek “democratic dialogue in Colombia and Venezuela” and argued that “diplomatic relations are meant for people to come together and not suffer from the differences of their governments.”
On Friday, Maduro was sworn in as Venezuela’s president for 2025-2031 by the Chavismo-controlled National Assembly (parliament), despite the majority of the opposition claiming that Edmundo González Urrutia was the winner of last July’s election. year.
The position of Piotr’s government, which has not yet recognized Maduro as president, is to maintain relations with the neighboring country precisely because of the impact on the border.
pp (afp/time)