Gustavo Petro warns that he will resume relations with Nicolás Maduro

TIME

Gustavo Petro, left-wing presidential candidate in Colombia, announced in the last few hours in Cucutawhich in case of reaching the Casa de Nariño will reestablish relations with Venezuela.

“I have to tell you that Cúcuta cannot be a city, it cannot prosper, it cannot overcome problems without opening the borders. Reestablishing diplomatic relations normally is a difficult and even controversial issue. Debatable on a global scale, undoubtedly, but I do not see an alternative for Cúcuta if there is no full reestablishment of diplomatic and consular relations between the two countries », he said.

Gustavo Petro in Cucuta

Petro made this announcement amid an impressive security scheme, which included bodyguards with shields on stage and an armored vest under the red and black jersey of the Cúcuta Deportivo soccer club.

The security operation was granted by the national government following his campaign revealed a plan to attack him and which led him to suspend public demonstrations for a couple of days.

Among the security personnel who protected him were also several agents of the National Police.

Rupture of diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela

The border has been closed since 2015 by order of Nicolás Maduro. Then President Iván Duque led an international campaign to establish democracy in that country. The Colombian president went so far as to say that “Maduro’s hours were numbered” in part due to the promotion of a strategy that he called “the diplomatic siege.”

Diplomatic relations have been broken since February 23, 2019. Since then, relations between the Casa de Nariño and the Palacio de Miraflores have been marked by verbal hostility.

Petro affirmed that Duque and Maduro are similar. “The destinies of Colombia and Venezuela follow the same path, they even resemble their rulers, because there is nothing more similar to Maduro in Colombia than Duque,” she assured.

*The Grupo de Diarios América (GDA), to which El Nacional belongs, is a leading media network founded in 1991 that promotes democratic values, an independent press and freedom of expression in Latin America through quality journalism for our audiences.

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