Colombia: Duque questions all dialogue on Venezuela while Maduro remains in power

the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, questioned all efforts aimed at re-establishing a dialogue process to find a way out of the situation in Venezuela as long as Nicolás Maduro remains in power.

“Going back to the table is simply prolonging the agony of dialogues that have no basis because what the dictator wants is to equip himself with power, it makes no sense,” he declared.

This week a senior US official assured that his country could review its policy of pressure and sanctions against Caracas if Maduro and the opposition resume dialogue and this reflects tangible results.

In an interview with Efe in Galapagos, where he went to support the expansion of the marine reserve around the Ecuadorian archipelago, Duque considered as a priority condition that “Maduro get out of the exercise of dictatorship and usurpation.”

And by expressing his disrepute for the negotiation process in Mexico, abruptly interrupted last October, he further conditioned any progress on the possibility of having a transitional government in Venezuela with broad representation from all sectors, the calling of free elections and a economic reconstruction plan.

Back to dialogue an agony

Colombia’s position on Venezuela, Duque stressed, has always been based on multilateralism, such as when “we denounced Nicolás Maduro with several heads of state before the International Criminal Court” or supported “Juan Guaidó with more than 50 countries.”

And he warned that if “the purpose for which the US government is invited to return to the table is to continue in this sequence (Maduro leaving power, transition government, free elections and reconstruction plan), welcome.” whatever, but it has to be on a single basis.”

The first and main one is that the Venezuelan leader abandons power because he assured: “Maduro is the Slobodan Milosevic of Latin America.”

“How can there be a credible process with a criminal against humanity exercising the dictatorship, persecuting opponents, locking them up, and additionally sponsoring the international terrorism of the ELN and the FARC dissidents, so that they settle in Venezuela?” he asked himself.

Temporary protection for Venezuelans

On the other hand, he referred to the Temporary Protection Statute that his Government has granted to Venezuelan migrants and refugees and that has a duration of 10 years, an international protection mechanism that has been applauded by the UN and other organizations.

“We are welcoming 1.8 million migrants, who can enter to look for work, to save, to buy a house, to reach the State’s social services, and that is the gesture of peace, the most important humanitarian gesture that we have seen in Latin America in the last decades”, he valued.

Ecuador also plans to announce this month a process of massive regularization of Venezuelan immigration in order to provide greater legal security to this vulnerable population throughout the continent.

In this sense, Duque warned that the Venezuelan exodus will continue if Maduro continues in power.

“If that dictatorship in Venezuela does not end, mass migration in Latin America will continue to grow. And that is why putting an end to that dictatorship is fundamental,” he concluded.