Colombian President Gustavo Petro, during the private meeting he held in Caracas last Tuesday with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, asked for guarantees for the elections scheduled in Venezuela for 2024.
Colombian sources quoted by Caracol Radio have explained that Petro has proposed an agreement of mutual guarantees to be taken to the dialogue table based in Mexico to advance in these talks and guarantee the rights of those participating in the next electoral process.
In the meeting between Maduro and Petro, issues such as Human Rights and bilateral security were also discussed. Petro has also called on Maduro for Venezuela to join the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a request to which the Venezuelan president said he was receptive.
It has also been confirmed that Petro and the presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; Chile, Gabriel Boric, and Argentina, Alberto Fernández will meet in Paris next week under the auspices of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, as facilitators of the dialogue between the Maduro government and the opposition.
Representatives of the Venezuelan government and the opposition could also participate in this meeting to address the situation and gather proposals to restart contacts in Mexico and seek a negotiated solution to the Venezuelan political crisis.
A «MONOLITHIC» BLOCK AGAINST THE U.S. The Colombian Ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, has confirmed that Maduro has promised to evaluate the possible return of Venezuela to the Inter-American Human Rights System.
«There is a point that is very important and it is that Petro goes to Caracas and tells Maduro to return to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and to our surprise he responds that he is going to review and study it,» Benedetti said in an interview with the Colombian newspaper ‘El Tiempo’ published this Sunday.
Petro’s purpose in insisting in public and private with his proposal to Maduro is to seek that the region be united and be a «monolithic body» to confront and negotiate with international banks and «end «* with the drug policy imposed by the United States.
During the interview, Benedetti was also consulted on the issue of border security following Petro’s complaint that contraband continues to pass through the border. This issue was the second most important point of the meeting between the two leaders in Caracas.
«Petro is very concerned that the border was opened and that the mafias continue to control many of the crossings (…). He has been thinking of at least changing the officials there. I do not want to accuse anyone, but on both sides there are officials who have collaborated with smuggling. It is necessary to make some personnel changes», indicated the ambassador.
Benedetti stressed that «the borders must be wrested from the mafias» and for this it is necessary the collaboration of both countries in the field of security.
