The former president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos asked to “react with more vehemence” and to continue international pressure against Venezuela.
“If the entire world and democracies above all are worried about this entire autocratic rise, then we should react with more vehemence, with more determination, with more perseverance. And I think that is what Venezuela needs,” he said in an interview with the content director of Cadena Ser, Montse Domínguez, at the World in Progress Forum Barcelona.
Santos regrets that Colombia’s position has been ambivalent and that “it should, for the interests of Colombians as well, be much more decisive and much stronger in its position against Venezuela.”
“It is also our interest, but also the interest of Venezuela and the region, that this transition be made and made as soon as possible,” a transition that we hope will be peaceful and effective.
strange combination
Advocate for “a combination of carrot and stick”, that is, first of all, giving the regime a dignified exit, that the frozen resources be returned to them.
Secondly, he defended encouraging much more research in the International Criminal Court: “The stick is much more effective in persecuting those who at this moment are determining that the regime is consolidated, who are violating human rights,” he added.
UN Assembly and Trump
He explained that former President of the United States Donald Trump asked him to bring together the main presidents at the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 to talk about Venezuela, and noted: “He, in the middle of a joke, said ‘Why don’t we invade?’ . I told him, don’t even think about mentioning that, and we argued there for two or three minutes about that stupidity.”
In this sense, he points out that Venezuela “is like a plane that ran out of gas” and that he asked Trump to seek a soft landing through the Security Council, with the support of China, Russia, the United States and Latin America.
“And when I mentioned to him that a very important actor in that soft landing was Cuba, he immediately reacted. He said ‘no, we can’t play with Cuba that way,’ said the former Colombian president, who assured that Trump was thinking about Florida’s votes and pointed out that thinking in the short term is one of the most serious problems of world leadership.
“Every conflict has a solution”
He has also referred to conflicts and negotiations to end them and has given the example of his negotiation with the FARC: “It cost me my popularity, as soon as I sat down they called me a traitor. How is it possible that you feel about those terrorists? But today I don’t regret it for a single second.”
“That type of leadership, thinking about the long term, not about short-term electoral interests, is what the world requires,” he added.
Finally, he questioned why not call the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to negotiate peace in Ukraine, and concluded: “Every conflict has a solution and a solution must be sought.”
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