After the arrival of the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó in Colombia this Monday, prior to the international conference convened in Bogotá to unlock the dialogue between the opposition and the government of Nicolás Maduro, the Foreign Ministry reported that the politician will not attend the meeting because you are not invited.
Through a press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that only the countries invited to this dialogue will participate in this summit.
“As has been publicly and repeatedly stated, the Conference is a meeting space with part of the international community,” said the Foreign Ministry.
Representatives of 20 countries, including the United States, are scheduled to meet in Bogota on Tuesday in an attempt to generate proposals to revive negotiations that began in Mexico City in August 2021 but stalled in November.
“I have just arrived in Colombia, in the same way that millions of Venezuelans have done before me, on foot,” said Guaidó, considered by the United States between January 2019 and 2023 as the president in charge of his country after Maduro’s questioned re-election a year earlier.
“I hope the summit can ensure that the Maduro regime returns to the negotiating table in Mexico and a credible timetable is agreed for free and fair elections as a solution to the conflict. Our fight is to make the rights of Venezuelans count.”
Until now there is no scheduled meeting between Guaidó and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. A delegation from the Unitary Platform, which represents the opposition at the negotiating table in Mexico, already held a meeting with the leftist president on Saturday.
“I will request a meeting with the international delegations that will attend. I will hold meetings with the Venezuelan diaspora,” Guaidó indicated.
“I will not stop denouncing the crimes against humanity committed by the Maduro regime. I demand the freedom of the almost 300 political prisoners who remain in jail, that they stop persecuting my family, my team and those who fight for a better Venezuela”.
Colombia was Guaidó’s main ally in the region when it was ruled by Petro’s predecessor, Iván Duque, who severed diplomatic relations with Maduro.
Petro reversed that process and has come to occupy a leading place in the political negotiation process in Venezuela. Last Thursday, he asked his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to gradually lift the sanctions that Washington maintains against Caracas with the commitment that the 2024 presidential elections will be held with guarantees.
Guaidó aspires to the opposition candidacy in a primary process scheduled for November 22.
“Despite the risk involved in going out again to seek support from the world for Venezuelans, as I have done before, I will not stop doing it,” said Guaidó, who is being subjected to various criminal investigations in Venezuela.