The government of Colombia, led by leftist Gustavo Petro, reaffirmed that it will maintain diplomatic relations with Venezuela, despite not endorsing the official results that consider dictator Nicolás Maduro the winner of the elections held on July 28 last year.
“Due to the close economic, commercial, social, cultural, humanitarian and security relationship that affects the citizens of both countries, Colombia has responsibly decided to maintain bilateral relations with Venezuela, which does not mean an endorsement of the election results,” he declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luis Gilberto Murillo, in a statement this Thursday (9).
The minister justified that “these were not free elections”, as the process “offered no guarantees” and the results were never published, as required by the Colombian government to recognize Maduro’s victory.
“Without public and transparent (voting) records, Colombia does not recognize the electoral results in Venezuela,” emphasized Murillo.
However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs commented that “Colombia promotes responsible and strategic diplomacy, with the aim of building relationships that are sustainable over time and that serve national interests.”
For this reason, the government believes that closing the border and breaking relations with Venezuela, as happened in the past and as demanded by different sectors, “is useless.”
“It is easy to break relationships and close borders. The responsible thing to do is to consider the long-term impact on people and really look for solutions to the underlying problems,” the Petro government insisted.
Murillo also said that the Venezuelan regime must respect the rights of the opposition and expressed his “deep concern and rejection of the growing and serious allegations of human rights violations.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that he will not attend Maduro’s inauguration this Friday (10) and stated that the elections were not free for several reasons, which is why his country cannot recognize them.
Despite the lack of credibility of the Maduro dictatorship, Colombia will be represented at the inauguration by the ambassador in Caracas, Milton Rengifo, something that has also led to numerous criticisms of the leftist Petro’s government, as some consider his attitude ambiguous for not recognizing the results of the elections that gave Maduro victory and, at the same time, sent a representative to the inauguration.
Venezuela and Colombia share a 2,219-kilometer border with seven Colombian departments and four Venezuelan states, where around 12 million people reside.
The dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro ordered the closure of the border between Venezuela and Colombia this Friday, hours before the inauguration in Caracas.
The measure was announced by the governor of the border state of Táchira, Freddy Bernal, who justified the action on the grounds of an alleged “international conspiracy” inside Venezuela.
The temporary blockade is expected to remain in force until next Monday (13).