President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday ratified his support for the efforts his counterpart Gustavo Petro may make to achieve definitive peace in Colombia.
During the inauguration of the second Venezuela-Colombia binational tourism meeting, which is taking place at the Parque Bolívar Convention Center in La Carlota, Miranda State, the Head of State expressed that President Petro knows that he can count on Venezuela “and on our government so that, in Colombia, sooner rather than later, peace is made; but while we get to that point, President, let us continue building the best economic, cultural, human, and diplomatic relations that there have ever been between Colombia and Venezuela.”
“President Petro is neither from the ruling classes nor from the oligarchy,” he said, while affirming that these Colombian ruling classes “do not want Venezuela.”
He added that Petro “is a man of the people and I know that as President he wants the best for Venezuela, he wants peace and we also want the best for Colombia, we want peace and we will continue to help in every way.”
Maduro said he would like to help speed up the negotiation and signing processes of the peace agreements, where Venezuela plays a leading role, in silence. “Because you will never see me making statements, nor will you see my Foreign Minister making statements about Colombia’s internal affairs,” he said.
He explained that, as official facilitators of the Colombian peace process, “they have never let a journalist get a word out of us on this subject. That is how it is, that is how it has been and that is how it should be so that our relations continue to prosper at the political, cultural and economic levels,” he added.
He also recalled that Petro has denounced that plans against him have been discovered and we have expressed our solidarity directly. “He has denounced that a coup d’état is underway against him and I know that the Colombian people will know how to use their force of peace, their force of democracy,” he said.
Anticolonialism between Colombia and Venezuela
During the event, the national leader proposed to establish a new era of respect, love and joint work between Colombia and Venezuela. “There is nothing that unites us more than working on a common project, and the common project has to be peace, economic development (…) The greatest social happiness that a decree from Bolívar can bring to the destiny of our peoples.”
In this regard, Maduro recalled that the person who ended anti-colonialism in Venezuela was Commander Hugo Chávez, “who taught us to love the common history of Gran Colombia.”
“In Venezuela, there is no anti-colonial expression on the streets, no persecution, no contempt, no xenophobia – that is over,” he said.
