Colombia considers granting asylum to Maduro if requested

“In the current moment of tension, it is necessary to negotiate and, certainly, if the United States demands a transition or a change, it is something that they must evaluate if this departure implies that he (Maduro) must live in another country or ask for protection, as Colombia would have no reason to say no”, said Colombian Foreign Minister, Rosa Villavicencio, in an interview with the broadcaster Snail Radio.

Villavicencio, however, said that if Maduro steps down from power, he does not believe he will choose Colombia to go into exile. “I think he would choose a more distant and quieter place”, he assessed.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated on Wednesday that Venezuela needs a “democratic revolution” and not “ineffective repressions”, when commenting on the retention and annulment of Cardinal Baltazar Porras’ passport at Caracas airport.

“Maduro’s government must understand that the response to external aggression is not just a military enlistment, but a democratic revolution. It is with more democracy that a country can be defended, not with more ineffective repressions”, stated Petro on his account on the social network X, in an unusual criticism of the allied dictator.

In this sense, Petro suggested a general amnesty for oppositionists, instead of increasing prisons, and insisted on his idea that there be a broad transitional government to put an end to the crisis in the country.

Since September, the United States Armed Forces have destroyed more than two dozen drug-laden vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, near Venezuela and Colombia.

US President Donald Trump has promised on several occasions that attacks will begin inside Venezuelan territory “soon”, while Maduro has called on his citizens to unite against what he considers “threats” from Washington and to sign up for a “armed struggle” in favor of the “revolution”.