What issues did Maduro and Petro raise when they first

What issues did Maduro and Petro raise when they first met in Caracas?

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Meeting between the leaders of Colombia and Venezuela. (Photo: Twitter of the Colombian Presidency).



Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro pointed out that the first meeting with his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro in Caracas was “fruitful”, “auspicious” and “with good results”.

“We had a fruitful, intense and long day with President Gustavo Petro and his delegation. we have spoken various issues of bilateral cooperation‘ Maduro said from Miraflores Palace, the seat of the Venezuelan government, where he told his counterpart that ‘he will always be very welcome in Bolívar’s homeland’.

Before the statements of the two South American leaders Petro and Maduro signed a joint declaration and shook hands to seal a milestone in the history of bilateral relations between the two countries, after six years without a meeting between the presidents of these two nations.

“Colombia and Venezuela, if we have something, it is a common destiny”said Maduro, who stressed that relations between Caracas and Bogotá should always be characterized by “fraternity and understanding”.

“Governments have an obligation to always work for the common good in the diversity of our visions,” added Maduro, who detailed several of the topics he spent several hours discussing with Petro.

Maduro commented that they discussed trade, economic ties and the “new steps” they will be taking “towards”. a full and safe opening of the borders between Colombia and Venezuela” and “the due and appropriate security and functioning” of the border zone.

On this point, President Petro stated that they were unanimous “Reconstruct the relationships that existed at the level of intelligence‘ to ‘hit not so much the drug dealers who are out there, but the owners of capital who have almost never been hit’ and who are ‘dangerous for political stabilization’.

In this regard, Petro commented that the issue of fighting drug trafficking requires “a major Latin American conference of presidents.” Re-examine errors committed in the last five decades”.

Venezuela’s re-entry into the CAN and economic cooperation

Maduro also announced that during the meeting he reaffirmed Venezuela’s will to rejoin the Andean Community economic bloc (CAN), a proposal Petro made early in his tenure and which Caracas endorses.

“We talked about multilateral issues that Venezuela’s re-entry into the Andean Communitythe CAN, good news for South America, good news for the CAN,” said Maduro.

On the subject, the Colombian President called on the governments of Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru to accept Venezuela’s readmission to the CAN “as a member with full powers, rights and duties”.

Meanwhile, Maduro pointed out that on the economic issue, they spoke of “strengthening the cooperation between Monómeros, Pequiven and all the work related to the fertilizer issue”.

He also explained that plans to strengthen the Community of Latin American States (CELAC) were under discussion the recovery of the Amazonthe strengthening of the South American Amazon Treaty Organization and “the need to bring forward a common position as South America, as Latin America and the Caribbean at COP27 in Egypt” that encompasses the issues inherent in climate change and current issues that translate into the “survival of the human species” .

The Venezuelan President indicated that they also discussed working together to fight drug trafficking, “the good handling of the migrant population” dynamically crossing the border with both countries and strengthening diplomatic and consular relations. “It was a fruitful and promising first meeting with good results and certainly from now on there will be good news for both populations”Maduro added.

Will Venezuela Return to the Inter-American Human Rights System?

Regarding Petro’s proposal for Venezuela to rejoin the Inter-American human rights system, Maduro indicated that it was an “interesting” topic.

“I’ve been very open-minded about the steps based on a reassessment of the inter-American human rights system, and this is how it will be for the next few weeksregarding this interesting topic raised by President Gustavo Petro,” commented the Venezuelan President.

On this point, Petro explained that the idea was that Venezuela, with its re-entry, could strengthen the inter-American system of human rights defend together the principles of democracyabove all “before the barbarity that is being unleashed in the world”, which is reflected in the “encroachment of fascism, authoritarianism and the exodus, which are answered with bullets at the borders”.

“That’s why we even asked the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to strengthen this system under the new signs of the timesthe new phase that we are about to see, which this time must produce genuine Latin American integration in practice, in deeds, in projects, not just in speeches,” added the Colombian President.

In that sense, Petro emphasized that Latin America must become a beacon of democracy for humanity, because at the moment the world is looking at Latin America for various reasons such as the political times, the climate crisis and the barbarism that is being observed that is putting the lives of humanity at risk as the planet sinks. more war” and “xenophobia”.

“We can be a torch, a beacon, if we want to. I believe that it is our turn to be a beacon and to integrate ourselves in this respect, to find the channels of democracy, to connect with the people without whom nothing works and can shine again a century of lights this is necessary because if it does not appear, extinction will come,” said the Colombian head of state.

“A brotherhood that should never have been broken”

Petro pointed out that the rupture in Colombia-Venezuela relations is something “unnatural” and “unhistorical”because it is about two countries and peoples bound by “ties of blood”, by “a common root” and mixed by history.

“We are mixed by historythrough a common root, through blood,” said Petro, adding that betting on the separation of two sister nations “really turns into a suicidal adventure” because the bonds of friendship that both peoples have always have to transcend “political forms” which every country accepts .

In this sense, Petro stressed that Caracas and Bogotá must now “rebuild” the path of this brotherhood, that although it is “difficult”, they must go and go must start at the borderwhich, after years of segregation between governments, is now in the hands of “mafias”.

“This path starts with rebuilding the border, the border is in the hands of the mafia, it stayed in the hands of the mafia, of what we call it multicriminal organizationswhose leadership is multinational is the expression of a failure in a so-called war on drugs and what has left us today is democratic destabilization, a million deaths in Latin America and territories lost to both society and it the States,” he said.

The mission, Petro explained, is that the border “regains its trading power”and that both countries’ entrepreneurs, the peasants and people’s traders, can begin to build common mechanisms that they themselves “freely built” to strengthen “the foundations of a mighty trade.”

In addition, there is the common approach to defending and recovering the Amazon, Petro said, which also needs to transform the current economic system dependent on oil and coal. In that effort he is the incorporation of Brazil“which is crucial” to protect the Amazon rainforest, a vital space that must be considered the “climatic pillar” of human existence.

“We will continue these discussions, debates and meetings of a brotherhood that should never have been broken,” he concluded.

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