Colombian President Gustavo Petro says Venezuelans "no longer want" Chavismo in power

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said this Tuesday that the Venezuelan people “no longer want” the Chavismo regime in power, suggesting that it is time for dictator Nicolás Maduro to relinquish power in the wake of the July 28 presidential elections.

The international community has widely recognized PUD opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the rightful victor and Venezuelan president-elect, but Maduro has refused to accept the global consensus and continued to assert the results announced by the regime controlled National Electoral Council.

He said that he warned Maduro’s predecessor, former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, that he was also out of touch with the people, but the communist ruler also ignored his concerns.

“Chávez did not understand me very well and look what is happening to Venezuela, they no longer know if it is democracy, they no longer know if it is a revolution, the people no longer love them,” Petro stated.

The Colombian president referred to the situation in Venezuela when speaking at the fourth Open Science Forum of Latin America and the Caribbean (CILAC 2024), held on the Colombian island of San Andrés, where he said that Chávez did not listen to his concerns about economics, politics and the environment.

“Chávez did not understand the matter well, but he understood part of it,” Petro said of his advice to Maduro’s communist predecessor.

He also raised concerns about the mass exodus of Venezuelans which he suggested was a referendum on the discontent people feel about their homeland under Maduro’s leadership.

Petro’s statements come amid the tensions unleashed between Colombia and Venezuela after the former has continued to recognize the reports of Nicolás Maduro’s regime committing electoral fraud.

Last week, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said that the government plans to respond to the invitation that Petro received to attend Maduro’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 10.

“We are going to respond to the invitation in due course,” said Murillo, who stressed that, given the disputed result of the elections, whose national electoral body gave the victory to Maduro, “Colombia's position has always been very clear: if There are no minutes [to the July 28 election], there is no recognition.”

Venezuelan president-elect, Edmundo González Urrutia, has stated on several occasions that on Jan. 10 he will be back in his country to take office as president of the Caribbean nation.

The opposition claimed González Urrutia's victory, ensuring that they had 80% of the copies of the minutes confirm his victory, which were published on a website.