President of the Republic Gustavo Petro has held a tense meeting with United States Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar over the labor agenda he is pushing in Washingtonwho is a Republican representative from the 27th District of Florida, a major contradiction to the policies of the Historic Compact President.
At the end of the meeting, the head of state indicated that he was already used to this type of meeting with people who disagreed with his government’s policies. noting that Salazar has similar thoughts to Colombian Congressmen María Fernanda Cabal and Paloma Valencia.
Likewise, President Petro indicated that he had experience in avoiding similar thoughts “extreme right of the Colombian Parliament”, in a clear taunt against the Republican representative from Florida’s 27th district.
“I already have years of experience in the Colombian parliament, with parliamentarians like Paloma Valencia and the Cabal (María Fernanda Cabal), and it’s very similar to the mindset that’s being developed in the extreme right of the Colombian parliament,” Petro said.
And he added in his statement as he left the Capitol in Washington: “It was a friendly and heartfelt meeting,” according to the Colombian President about the details he revealed about the meeting with United States Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar.
However, the Republican representative from Florida’s 27th District held nothing back and lashed out at President Petro at the end of the meeting she had with him: “Talking to Petro is disappointing because Petro doesn’t answer the questions, Petro rambles and rambles and talks about the history of 400 years ago.”
He also bluntly pointed out: “Colombia has specific problems, one of the big problems in Colombia is that we don’t know what’s going to happen with democracy, with the institutions, with the economy and what’s going to happen with the policy of ‘total peace “: “Who wants to negotiate with the drug dealers and the guerrillas”.
“President Petro’s plan is just an admirer of Fidel Castro. He thinks that socialism is a viable ideology. We are talking about statements that are very worrying for people who know what Marxism means,” said the congresswoman of the United States.
‘Settle our scores’: President Petro urged the OAS to revise the democratic charter of American states
Earlier this Wednesday, Gustavo Petro addressed the Organization of American States (OAS) General Council in Washington and launched a direct petition to the countries that make up the multilateral organization.
The Colombian President called for the revision of the OAS’ democratic charter to guarantee the political rights of those elected by popular vote; Similarly, President Petro insisted that the Organization of American States include Venezuela.
“And on the way to revising the democratic charter, to settling our scores; Undoubtedly, I was not the only victim of violating this letter when I was deprived of my political rights, which I regained thanks to a conviction,” Petro said.
“And it needs a democratic pact. Of course, I’m interested and fighting for Venezuela’s reinsertion into the Inter-American human rights system; Of course we should also discuss this with Cuba, which was never the case‘ emphasized Gustavo Petro.
On the other hand, the Colombian President spoke again about the actions that need to be taken to tackle the climate crisis, noting that a decarbonized Latin America is needed.
“Yesterday, a message about energy appeared in the study of social networks, which established that Latin America became an aesthetic space for the transformation of the world. He’s talking about the decarbonized economy, he’s looked at it through the lens of minerals,” emphasized Petro.
He also said: “Fossils are those which, in accumulation, will wipe out humanity; now the minerals that are needed more than ever to build the energy transitionCopper, lithium… here are the countries with the greatest amounts of these elements”.
“Funding as a central axis makes us vulnerable, and if we sum up other facts, it’s that not only do we have the minerals needed for the energy transition, we also have the same energies in a renewable way, with the sun, the wind, the water. The aborigines had already said so, and they are essential elements if we want life to continue on the planet in the next lifetimes,” he stressed.
President Petro will ask Joe Biden to lift sanctions on Venezuela. Will Nicolás Maduro benefit from this?
The Head of State pointed out that one of the aims of convening a major international summit in Bogotá on April 25th is to launch talks in Mexico to resolve the political and social crisis in Venezuela.
“It’s a topic that needs to be discussed, a summit will be held – practically in a week in Bogotá – by European foreign ministers, including those from the United States, by many Latin American governments, to kick-start the negotiations that Venezuela has been leading bring implementation,” said Petro. .
And the head of state added: “With the goal that there are no sanctions, that there is much more democracy in Venezuela, more democracy, zero sanctions and that is the goal of the conference.”