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Colombia’s President Visits Venezuela, Moving Away From Isolation


CARACAS, Venezuela – It was a meeting that just a year ago would have been almost unthinkable.

But on Tuesday, the president of Colombia, the country for many years the United States’ strongest ally in Latin America, flew to Caracas to meet the leader of Venezuela, someone the United States does not recognize as its own country. . president and who is accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity.

The meeting between Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s newly elected leftist president, and Nicolás Maduro, a socialist-inspired leader who set aside his country’s democratic institutions and helped push the plunged the country into poverty, marking a new chapter in the global approach to Venezuela.

For years, a US-led coalition has sought to push Mr. Maduro out with sanctions and isolation. But a growing number of countries, especially the new leftist governments in South America, have begun to soften their approach to Mr. Maduro.

And Colombia, which shares a border with Venezuela that is more than 1,300 miles long, is one of the largest and most important countries to opt for, both because of its proximity to Venezuela – and therefore its ability to engage in cross-border trade. border – and close relationship with the United States.

However, the question raised about this new engagement is crucial.

Will Petro’s takeover of Maduro facilitate the autocratic leader, give him a dose of international legitimacy he craves, and help him solidify his grip on power?

Or can Petro push a leftist toward democratic norms, including what the Venezuelan opposition is demanding: a free and fair presidential election in 2024?

Phil Gunson, an analyst with the International Crisis Group who has lived in Venezuela for more than two decades, said the visit “is a prize for Mr. “I fear that Maduro will do more of this than the Petro will.”

In a speech shortly before taking off for Caracas, Petro said his intention was to discuss border relations, migration and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest with Mr. back to the pan-American system of Human Rights.

The decision to re-enter that system will allow victims who have not received justice in the Venezuelan courts to seek facts in international courts. But many analysts say Mr. Maduro has little incentive to participate.

“Six years of political vacuum in relations between the two neighbours,” Mr. Petro said. “There’s a lot to talk about.”

In response, a US State Department spokesman said that Washington urges Colombia “to hold accountable governments that have removed democratic norms, such as the dictatorship of Maduro.” But the Biden administration has not explicitly criticized or praised the move.

Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, came to power in 1999 after a democratic election. When he died in 2013, his chosen successor, Mr. Maduro, became president.

Over time, corruption and mismanagement have destroyed the economy, triggering a humanitarian crisis. To stay in power, Mr. Chávez and Mr. Maduro cracked down on the media and sent opposition figures to prison.

Since 2015, a quarter of the population has fled and today Venezuelans are the largest group finding their way through dangerous jungle called Darién in a desperate attempt to get to the United States. A record number of Venezuelans have come to the United States in recent months.

The US accused Mr. Maduro of rigging the 2018 presidential election and in 2019 severed diplomatic ties with the Venezuelan government. Just weeks later, it recognized an opposition figure, Juan Guaidó, as the country’s legitimate president, a move that has been followed by dozens of countries.

Since then, the US-led strategy has been to try to lead Mr. Maduro to a new election through economic sanctions.

But that policy has not shaken Mr. Maduro.

And in recent months, many countries have chosen to begin engaging with the Maduro government, in part a reflection of the election of leftists across South America. Following Sunday’s election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, all six of the largest countries in Latin America are or will soon be led by leaders who profess leftist ideals.

Bolivia resumed normal relations with Venezuela after the election of Luis Arce in 2020. Peru did the same last year following the election of Pedro Castillo. Earlier this year, President Alberto Fernández of Argentina said he would do something similar.

On Monday, Mr. Maduro announced that he and Mr. Lula spoke by phone and agreed to resume bilateral cooperation.

President Gabriel Boric of Chile is perhaps the most critical of Mr. Maduro. His centre-right predecessor recognized Mr Guaidó as Venezuela’s president. Since then, however, there has been no mention of Mr Guaidó on the website of the Foreign Ministry, nor any official recognition of Mr. Maduro’s government.

In September, at an event at Columbia University, Mr. Boric said leftists can’t be afraid to condemn the bad guys in their midst.

“We can’t have double standards,” he said.

Colombia, which has had only centrist and right-wing governments until recently, has had a strained relationship with Venezuela since Chávez came to power.

But relations soured in 2019 when Colombia recognized Mr. Guaidó as Venezuela’s leader and Mr. Maduro severed ties with Bogotá.

Members of the Venezuelan opposition alternately welcomed and condemned Petro’s visit.

Mr. Guaidó, who is still recognized by the United States as the president of Venezuela, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Maduro is a “dictator” and that Mr. Petro’s visit “could dangerously normalize human rights abuses.”

But in an interview, Stalin González, another member of the opposition, said that the international community had exhausted its isolation strategy.

Only dialogue remains, he said, and the Venezuelan opposition should embrace the efforts of the new left in South America to bring Mr. Maduro to the negotiating table.

“I hope that the Petro will be an ally of democracy in Venezuela,” Mr. González said. “In the past, the strategy of pressure and more pressure was used and that didn’t work. We need people who encourage Maduro to come to democracy, respect human rights and institutions again.”

Mr. Petro described his decision to restore relations as a practical one.

There are now more than two million Venezuelans living in Colombia, but with no consular service to assist them, while the rift has ended billions of dollars in legal trade, feeding illegal, undisturbed trade. taxes along the many dirt roads that run along the vast border of the two countries.

However, there are signs that Mr. Petro’s interests may be dwindling home. Colombia’s president has bet his presidency on achieving what he calls “comprehensive peace”, which involves the elimination of many of the country’s armed groups through peace agreements and other vehicles.

But to achieve this, Mr. Petro needs Mr. Maduro, who gave permission to some of those groupsincluding a leftist guerrilla group known as the National Liberation Army, which flourished in Venezuela.

Mr. Gunson said Mr. Maduro had a long history of unfaithful negotiations, and was skeptical of the idea that he would follow through with whatever he promised Petro.

So far, it is unclear whether Mr. Maduro promised Petro anything in return for the public meeting.

Benigno Alarcón, director of the Center for Political Studies at Venezuela’s Andrés Bello Catholic University, similarly doubts that Petro will be able to push Mr. Maduro in the direction of democracy.

“If this relationship has political components, as I bet it will,” he said, predicting that it would “somehow benefit the stability of the Maduro government.”

Reporting was contributed by Genevieve Glatsky in Bogotá, Colombia, John Bartlett in Santiago, Chile, María Silva Trigo in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and Mitra Taj in Lima, Peru.

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