The crisis for several countries of the continent has been exacerbated. Mexican President López Obrador sees no “evidence of fraud” and criticizes the “interventionism of the OAS.”
14ymedio, Havana, July 31, 2024 — The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who had taken care to make statements about last weekend’s Venezuelan elections, finally expressed his official position on Wednesday. Although he calls for “transparent scrutiny,” the president is ambivalent on other key issues, but he did make it clear that “anything that happens in Venezuela will affect Colombia.”
So far, Petro’s government, through its Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, has refused to recognize any victory, either of the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia or of the current president, his political ally, Nicolás Maduro. Likewise, Murillo requested a review of the ballots and an audit of the results declared by the National Electoral Committee of Venezuela (CNE). However, the voice of the Colombian president, who during his term has guided a rapprochement with Caracas, was missed.
“The serious doubts that are established around the Venezuelan electoral process can lead the people to a deep violent polarization with serious consequences of division,” were the first words that Petro wrote on his X account, while calling on the neighboring Government to respect, with transparency, the result of the elections “whatever it is.”
“We respectfully propose to reach an agreement between the Government and the opposition that allows maximum respect for the party that has lost the elections. Such an agreement can be delivered as a Unilateral Declaration of State to the United Nations Security Council,” he added.
“We respectfully propose to reach an agreement between the Government and the opposition that allows maximum respect”
“I invite the Venezuelan Government to allow the elections to end in peace by allowing a transparent counting of ballots and a scrutiny of all the political forces of the country, with professional international oversight,” said the president, who did not miss an opportunity, however, to point out the “blockade” of the United States as “an anti-human measure that only brings more hunger and more violence than already exists and promotes the mass exodus of peoples.”
The concern about the mass migration of Venezuelans is a subtle constant in the president’s statement. Colombia has been affected in recent years by the stampede of those fleeing Chavismo.
“Free people know how to make their decisions,” is the point of Petro’s statement, and what shows the measure of their loyalty, even if they fall back on neutrality, is the hope that Chavismo will accept its “great responsibility” to remember the spirit of Chávez and allow the Venezuelan people to return to tranquility so that the elections end calmly and a transparent result is accepted.”
The statement – extremely carefu