Photo composition showing, from left to right, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Photo: RedRadioVE.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has arranged for a virtual meeting with his counterparts from Colombia, Gustavo Petro; Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; and Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The meeting was announced this Tuesday, September 3, by the Colombian minister of foreign affairs, Luis Gilberto Murillo, who stated that the meeting between the four leaders will be to establish positions on Venezuela, in light of the multiple attacks that the extreme right has perpetrated in recent days.
“The meeting aims to express their positions,” Murillo said, “to have a dialogue within diplomatic confidentiality to find solutions and determine their fundamental positions. What they do not want is to limit the possibility of mediation or facilitation.”
#Atención El canciller Luis Gilberto Murillo aseguró que buscan “reconfirmar” la reunión con Nicolás Maduro y el presidente Petro, porque “hubo eventos adicionales” como el último comunicado de Colombia y Brasil rechazando la orden de detención contra Edmundo González. pic.twitter.com/tBNt1BkZiQ
— RCN Radio (@rcnradio) September 4, 2024
The Colombian foreign minister said that during this meeting, President Maduro and his counterparts from Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil will help promote mediation, given that the situation in Venezuela has repercussions throughout the region.
He added that Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil currently hold the same position, but it is necessary to move forward in solutions “that allow political peace” in the South American nation. However, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has distanced himself in recent weeks from some of the more interventionist statements that have been signed by Lula and Petro regarding the results of the sovereign and democratic elections of Venezuela.
Murillo added that any final action or agreement must respect Venezuela’s sovereignty and autonomy. These will therefore be the fundamental principles in the discussion between the leaders.
After the presidential elections held on July 28, the authorities of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil issued a joint statement in which they indicated that the only entity in charge of presenting the results of the elections is the National Electoral Council (CNE), in accordance with the Venezuelan constitution.
In the statement, they called on “the country’s political and social actors to exercise maximum caution in demonstrations and public events,” so as to avoid destabilizing circumstances. However, Presidents Lula and Petro went on to take postures more aligned with Washington’s imperial interventionist narrative of questioning the legitimacy of the Venezuelan presidential election’s results.
Edmundo González arrest warrant
A few hours after Murillo’s statement, the governments of Brazil and Colombia released a statement interfering in the internal affairs and the sovereign decisions of the Venezuelan judiciary, regarding the issuance of an arrest warrant against former far-right opposition candidate Edmundo González.
“Brazil and Colombia express deep concern over the arrest warrant issued on September 2 by a Venezuelan court against presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia,” reads the statement. “This judicial measure seriously undermines the commitments assumed by the Venezuelan government under the Barbados Agreements, in which the government and the opposition reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen democracy and promote a culture of tolerance and coexistence.”
It is not clear yet how this new statement will influence the announced meeting between President Maduro and his counterparts from Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. However, it was evident once again that the Mexican president assumed a less interventionist approach that his Colombian and Brazilian counterparts interfering in a sovereign decision of the Venezuelan judiciary, which was made alongside publicly detailed evidence of former candidate González showing a clear and blatant disregard for Venezuelan rule of law.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
