“What Colombia is not going to do is recognize a disgraceful, corrupt, drug-trafficking dictatorship,” says Iván Duque on the Senate initiative to seek diplomatic and commercial rapprochement.

The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, reiterated today that his government will not recognize a “shameful dictatorship” like that of Venezuela, in response to the Senate’s initiative to create a bilateral legislative commission to seek the normalization of relations with that country.

“One thing in which we cannot be wrong is that what Colombia is not going to do is recognize a disgraceful, corrupt, drug-trafficking dictatorship,” Duque said in a statement with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who arrived today on an official visit to Bogotá.

According to Duque, recognizing the Government of Nicolás Maduro, with which Colombia has not had diplomatic relations since February 2019, “would be a surrender to the values ​​that our country has historically defended.”

The Colombian Senate unanimously approved on Tuesday a proposal that seeks a diplomatic and commercial rapprochement with Venezuela, presented by Senator Jorge Guevara, of the Alianza Verde party, a decision that was communicated today to the president of the Parliament of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez.

Said rapprochement would be made through the creation of a bilateral commission to work for the “normalization of diplomatic relations, commercial relations and the verification of good commercial practices” between both nations.

The president of the Colombian Senate, Juan David Gómez, affirmed today that said proposal, which was celebrated by Rodríguez and Maduro, is a message for the Duque Executive about the need to advance in the reestablishment of relations “because this is an issue that it has no political ideology, it is a commercial matter that I would say belongs to border countries ”.

However, Duque removed the iron from this proposal by pointing out that international relations are handled by the Executive and not the Legislative and, as far as he is concerned, there will be no rapprochements with the Maduro government.

“As long as I am the president of Colombia and in defense of the (Inter-American) Democratic Charter and in defense of the values ​​that we have built with many countries, also supported by a complaint against the dictator before the International Criminal Court, we are not going to recognize him” , he expressed.

After Duque’s reaction, the president of the Senate published a video in which he clarified that the aforementioned proposition “in no way substitutes the constitutional powers to manage international relations headed by President Iván Duque, who has been categorical in stating that the State The Colombian government does not recognize the government of Nicolás Maduro ”.

“Any progress in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations is the exclusive power of the president of the republic through the Foreign Ministry,” Gómez emphasized.

The Colombian president recalled that Maduro broke relations with Colombia in February 2019, but ties had already fallen to a minimum long before, during the government of his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, who did not recognize his triumph in the May elections. of 2018.

“It is important to bear in mind that when our Government began (August 7, 2018) we had two or almost two years without an ambassador in Caracas and also the Government that preceded me had publicly declared that it would not recognize the results of the fraudulent elections with the which the dictator thought to perpetuate himself in power ”, he affirmed.

The definitive rupture occurred on February 23, 2019 after the head of the Venezuelan opposition, Juan Guaidó, tried to enter his country from the Colombian city of Cúcuta leading a caravan of vehicles with humanitarian aid, which ended in violence in border.

“Colombia has recognized, as has the United States Government and more than 50 countries, an interim government that has represented democratic resistance, which has faced the brutality of that regime,” he added, referring to Guaidó.

The president stressed that despite the differences with the Maduro government, Colombia is in solidarity with the Venezuelan people.

“The position of Colombia with Venezuela is the position of the fraternity; Perhaps the most important gesture of migration policy worldwide that we have seen in the recent history of the continent is the one we have had with the Venezuelan people, receiving about 1.8 million migrants who are emerging from the most brutal of dictatorships ” , he claimed. (I)