EXCLUSIVE
Chatting with Al Jazeera, Gustavo Petro requires ‘shared authorities by means of dialogue’ in Venezuela, resulting in elections.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has pressured the significance of getting open strains of communication with america regardless of President Donald Trump’s current threats of navy motion.
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, Petro mentioned his authorities was searching for to take care of cooperation on combating narcotics with Washington, hanging a softer tone following days of escalating rhetoric.
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He spoke shortly after holding a cellphone name with Trump on Wednesday, a direct contact that Petro known as a “technique of communication that didn’t exist earlier than”.
Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, mentioned that beforehand, info between the 2 governments had been transmitted by means of unofficial channels “mediated by political ideology and my opposition”.
“I’ve been cautious – regardless of the insults, the threats and so forth – to take care of cooperation on drug trafficking between Colombia and america,” Petro mentioned.
US threats
Simply hours after the US navy kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, Trump turned his threats of navy motion in direction of Colombia.
Trump accused Petro – with out proof – of operating cocaine mills, calling him a “sick man”.
Requested on Sunday whether or not he would authorise a navy operation in opposition to Petro, Trump mentioned, “Sounds good to me.”
In response, Petro promised to defend his nation, saying that he would “take up arms” for his homeland.
Whereas temperatures have cooled within the wake of the decision between the 2 leaders on Wednesday, observers have largely seen Trump’s threats because the potential subsequent step within the White Home’s said purpose of building US “pre-eminence” within the Western Hemisphere.
However the feud between the Trump administration and Petro pre-dated the assault on Venezuela.
The Colombian president has been a vocal critic of Israel’s US-backed genocidal battle on Gaza.
In September, Washington revoked Petro’s US visa after he spoke at a pro-Palestine march outdoors the United Nations Basic Meeting in New York.
Weeks later, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Colombian president, who’s term-limited and set to depart workplace after a presidential election in Might.
‘Shared authorities by means of dialogue’
Petro was among the many first world leaders to sentence the kidnapping of Maduro, calling the US raid an “assault on the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America”.
In his interview with Al Jazeera, Petro warned that Venezuela, which borders his nation, may fall into violence within the post-Maduro period. He mentioned that “could be a catastrophe”.
“To that extent, what I’ve proposed is a shared authorities by means of dialogue amongst all of the political forces in Venezuela and a sequence of steps in direction of elections,” he mentioned.
Petro added that he has spoken to Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, and he sensed she is apprehensive about the way forward for the nation.
“She’s additionally dealing with assaults,” the Colombian president mentioned. “Some accuse her of betrayal, and that’s constructed as a story that divides the forces that had been a part of the Maduro authorities.”
