The vice president and chancellor of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez, assured that the regimes of Venezuela and Nicaragua will not be invited to the investiture of the elected president, Gustavo Petro. The politician said she raised the idea with the deputy chancellor that they were not “going to invite those two dictators.”
In statements to the US media outlet Voice of America, the Colombian official explained that during a meeting she held on Monday with Álvaro Leyva, the future Minister of Foreign Affairs, appointed by Petro, she informed him that “the one who invites is always the outgoing government,” that is, , the administration of Iván Duque, and that, of course, neither “the dictatorship” of Nicolás Maduro nor Daniel Ortega would be invited.
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Ramírez also confirmed the presence of twelve heads of state for the event, almost all of them from Latin America. Among them, the leaders of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Panama, the Netherlands, Honduras, Costa Rica and Argentina. The Joe Biden government will be represented by Samantha Power, director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The government of President Iván Duque will end its term on August 7 so that the first left-wing administration in Colombia will begin its term later. Ortega had sought rapprochement with the new president, trying to be one of the first administrations to congratulate Petro after the electoral victory in the second round.
“In these challenging times for the sister peoples of our Latin America and the Caribbean, who yearn so much for peace, prosperity and well-being, we reiterate our unalterable will to continue strengthening the bonds of fraternal brotherhood, solidarity and cooperation, which must prevail between our peoples and governments. and that they are essential to continue forging unity, integration and regional development, ”said the letter sent by Ortega and Murillo to Petro.
Managua and Bogotá have maintained tense relations for several years as a result of the series of border conflicts in the Caribbean Sea, all of which have been resolved by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Colombia has ignored the rulings.
Related news: More than 10 presidents and the king of Spain will attend Petro’s inauguration
Given this, Ramírez told Voice of America that during his transfer process with the appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, several issues were discussed, such as the maritime dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia, and the demand for the territory before the International Court of Justice, as well as the bilateral foreign policy issues, Latin American integration, and ties with the US and the European Union.
On February 24, 2022, the Nicaraguan regime withdrew the credentials of Alfredo Rangel Suárez as Colombian ambassador in Managua, “by offensively meddling in the internal affairs of our country.”
Through a note addressed to the Colombian Foreign Minister, María Luisa Ramírez, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, Denis Moncada, explained that Rangel Suárez sent him a letter “in which value judgments are insolently issued on the internal affairs of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan State and its people are shamelessly offended.”
