BOGOTÁ (AP) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke out in support of Venezuela, Cuba and Peru in his speech at an extraordinary session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States on Wednesday.
Petro reiterated to the OAS that he is interested and “fighting” for Venezuela to rejoin the inter-American human rights system, which it abandoned in 2013. This is a public request Petro made to Nicolás Maduro in November last year, following the first face-to-face meeting they held in Caracas on the resumption of diplomatic ties between neighboring countries that had been broken for years. Maduro then replied that he was thinking about it.
The Colombian president also urged speaking with Cuba about its possible return to the inter-American system. Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962, and although the body’s member states annulled that suspension in 2009, Havana refused to return, citing the body as a United States control tool.
“But we’re not looking at Peru? Isn’t there a president imprisoned there without a trial, without his political rights, in violation of the democratic charter?” Petro asked, referring to former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, who in December tried to dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency. for which he was later arrested, Congress fired him and Vice President Dina Boluarte took office.
Since then, Petro has championed Castillo, calling on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to take precautionary measures on behalf of the former Peruvian president. In March, the Boluarte government withdrew the Peruvian ambassador from Colombia over Petro’s “repeated interference and offensive language.”
Speaking to the OAS, Petro proposed “reshaping” the Inter-American Democratic Charter — an instrument aimed at preserving democratic institutions in countries in the region — to “strengthen” what the president says would mean Extending the rights beyond individuals include those of nature and sex.
“Latin America can be the world’s voice for this undoubtedly revolutionary new democratic project,” Petro said.