Politics
Petro rules out immediate meeting with Maduro despite interest in resuming bilateral relations
The new Colombian president said that relations with Venezuela need to follow a process
August 10, 2022 9:32am
Updated: August 10, 2022 10:12pm
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said on Tuesday that his government will not meet with the regime of Nicolás Maduro immediately, despite the interest of both nations to resume the damaged bilateral relations.
"We are still working on the normalization of relations, which is a process," Petro said in statements to local media, according to Caracol Radio.
Because Petro is Colombia's first leftist president, Maduro did not hesitate to reach out to resume contact between the two countries and re-establish a relationship that has deteriorated in recent years.
The Venezuelan dictator accused the former president of Colombia, Iván Duque, of planning terrorist attacks against him. On the other hand, Bogotá claimed that Caracas gave protection to Colombian criminals. Bilateral relations remain officially broken since February 2019.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, said that Maduro had given the order to re-establish contact "immediately" with his Colombian counterpart, Iván Velásquez Gómez, to "re-establish" military relations between the two countries.
"I have received instructions from the commander-in-chief of the FANB (Bolivarian National Armed Forces), Nicolás Maduro, to immediately establish contact with the Colombian Minister of Defense to reestablish our military relations," Padrino López confirmed on the Armed Forces Twitter account.
Maduro and Petro had already anticipated that after Sunday's inauguration they would reestablish diplomatic relations at all levels.
Padrino's statements, made during a ceremony to hand over and receive vice ministries in the western Venezuelan state of Lara, coincide with Maduro's most recent call to leftist Gustavo Petro to "rebuild brotherhood" between the two nations.
After Petro's inauguration ceremony, the Venezuelan president congratulated the former Colombian guerrilla and reiterated that he extended his hand "to rebuild brotherhood based on respect and love among peoples."
