Juan Manuel Santos asked for increased international pressure to solve the Venezuelan crisis

Santos hopes that the Venezuelan political crisis will have a solution / Photo: La Mañana

Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos urged the international community on Sunday, September 22, to continue to exert pressure so that Venezuela can see a change in the country through a peaceful transition.

Speaking to DW from New York, Santos said that pressure must be increased because “it is unacceptable that a regime that violates human rights, that is consolidating its rule against norms and protocols, goes unpunished.”

When asked whether opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia should be recognized as president-elect, the former Colombian president said that this decision is not up to him, however, he said that in his opinion the president is the one who obtained the majority of votes, so he stressed that the politician now exiled in Spain is the person who achieved that milestone.

He did not want to answer questions about the mediating role that Colombia and Brazil are seeking to play in the Venezuelan crisis, although he hopes that their efforts will end successfully.

Meetings

Semana magazine reported on August 21 that at the Colombian Foreign Relations Advisory Committee, its third meeting since President Gustavo Petro took power, former President Juan Manuel Santos urged the current administration to toughen Bogotá’s position against the administration of Nicolás Maduro.

The newspaper said that Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, who attended the meeting on behalf of Petro, listened and took note of Santos’ position on the matter.

It should be remembered that Juan Manuel Santos has said on other occasions that the results of the elections in Venezuela cannot be recognized until the disaggregated data is published and transparency in the process is demonstrated.

Former President Ernesto Samper, who was an international observer in Caracas during the July 28 elections, said that Venezuela has been a “loyal and active partner in Colombia’s peace processes.”

Falcon / The Morning