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Maduro and Petro meet by surprise after the misunderstanding with the ELN ceasefire

2023-01-07T14:18:13.944Z


The presidents will have lunch in Caracas to discuss the peace process Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro are going to meet this Saturday by surprise after the misunderstanding with the ELN about the ceasefire. The presidents of Venezuela and Colombia will have lunch in Caracas, at the Miraflores Palace, at two in the afternoon. On the table there are issues such as border control, the discussion of the inclusion of Venezuela in the inter-American system of human right


Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro are going to meet this Saturday by surprise after the misunderstanding with the ELN about the ceasefire.

The presidents of Venezuela and Colombia will have lunch in Caracas, at the Miraflores Palace, at two in the afternoon.

On the table there are issues such as border control, the discussion of the inclusion of Venezuela in the inter-American system of human rights, the date of the presidential elections, but the main issue will be the peace process with the guerrillas, whose first cycle of talks was held in Caracas.

The future of that negotiation is at stake.

Petro needs a coup after starting the year with a wrong move.

On the last day of 2022, he announced the truce with the ELN, but three days later the guerrilla leaders corrected him: in reality they had not reached any pact.

Petro's own negotiators explained that the matter was still being discussed and that the president had been rash.

His trip to Caracas should serve to reverse this situation and promote the process that, in theory, will continue in Mexico.

The Colombian president is traveling accompanied by Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, the Chief of Staff Laura Sarabia and the Minister of Commerce, Germán Umaña.

There the ambassador in Caracas, Armando Benedetti, awaits them.

Petro will see a Maduro more entrenched than ever on the international scene, in the midst of a process of political opening and with the opposition experiencing a new political crisis.

Twenty-four hours ago he appointed a new chancellor and a new president of PDVSA, two key positions in his government.

Maduro and Petro met for the first time on November 1 of last year.

The Colombian has done everything possible to normalize relations with Venezuela after four previous years of tension with previous Colombian presidents.

In exchange, he has insisted that Chavismo return to the negotiating table with the opposition in Mexico —a date has to come from there and the guarantee that free Venezuelan presidential elections will be held— and he considers it a priority to return to the regional organizations, mainly the Inter-American Human Rights System.

Face to face, Petro spoke to Maduro about the need to strengthen liberal democracies in Latin America.

Countries are also pushing for new energy deals.

As this newspaper announced yesterday, Ecopetrol, the Colombian state oil company, has requested permission from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), known as the Clinton list, to do business with PDVSA.

It asks for a license similar to the one Chevron obtained with which to operate without being sanctioned by Washington.

Petro's meeting with Maduro comes after he met with Lula a few days ago, hours after his inauguration as president of Brazil, and two days before he meets Gabriel Boric in Chile.

The Colombian president has tried to boost his leadership capacity in the region.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-01-07

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