It was a meeting that would have been just a year ago almost unthinkable.

But on Tuesday the president of Colombia, a nation that has been for years the strongest ally of the United States in Latin Americaflew to Caracas to meet the leader of Venezuela, a man whom the United States does not recognize as the president of his country and who is accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity.

The meeting between Gustavo Petro, recently elected president of the left in Colombia, and Nicolás Maduro, a leader of socialist inspiration who has gutted the democratic institutions of his country and has helped to plunge much of the nation into the povertymarks a new chapter in the comprehensive approach to Venezuela.

For years, a US-led coalition has been trying to oust Maduro. through sanctions and isolation. But an increasing number of countries, especially the new left-wing governments in South America, it began to soften his approach to Maduro.

And Colombia, which shares a border beyond that with Venezuela 2,000 kilometers longit is among the largest and most important to opt for the compromise, both for its physical proximity to Venezuela – and therefore for its ability to engage in cross-border trade – and for its close relations with the United States.

However, the question surrounding this new commitment is significant.

Petro’s rapprochement with Maduro, will allow the authoritarian leader, give him one dose of legitimacy international community that wishes to help him consolidate his hold on power?

Or it will be Petro push a comrade on the left towards democratic normsincluding what the Venezuelan opposition asked for: free presidential elections is it right in 2024?

“A prize for Maduro”

Visit “It’s a prize for Mr. Maduro”said Phil Gunson, an analyst with the International Crisis Group who has lived in Venezuela for more than two decades. “My fear is that Maduro will take more advantage of it than Petro.”

On Tuesday, Petro, accompanied by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, entered Miraflores, the presidential palace in Caracas, on a red carpet, where he was received by Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

After a public handshakeIn almost identical clothes – white shirts, black pants – the two leaders headed for a private meeting.

After, fflanked by a portrait of Simón Bolívar, which was instrumental in the founding of both nations, Petro described how “unnatural” to the recent divisions between neighbors. He said he came to Venezuela to “rebuild the border” between the two countries, which fell into the hands of the “mafias”, and to discuss the “defense of the Amazon jungle”, which extends to both countries.

And he said he was asking Maduro to return to the Inter-American system of human rights. The decision to re-enter that system would allow victims who have not received justice in Venezuelan courts to appeal to an international court. It would also be a sign that Maduro wants Venezuela to do so re-enter the democratic community.

At the end of his speech, Petro said that Maduro he had the opportunity to “light the torch to shout ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom'”.

“This is our invitation,” he said.

Many analysts believe that Maduro have few incentives become part of the Inter-American system of human rights. But in his own speech, Maduro said he was “very receptive” to the idea. He described the meeting as “fruitful, very auspicious, with good results”.

Neither leader answered questions from the press.

In response to the visit, a US State Department spokesperson said Washington urged Colombia “a hold accountable to governments that have discarded democratic norms, such as the authoritarian Maduro regime “.

But the Biden administration did not explicitly criticize or praise the move.

The Chavista regime

Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, came to power in 1999 after the democratic elections. When he died in 2013, his chosen successor, Maduro, became president.

Over time, corruption and mismanagement have destroyed the economytriggering a humanitarian crisis. To stay in power, Chavez and Maduro they repressed the media and imprisoned opponents.

Since 2015, a quarter of the population fledand today Venezuelans are the largest group making their way a treacherous jungle called Darien, desperate to reach the United States. A record number of Venezuelans have entered the United States in recent months.

The United States accused Maduro of rigging the 2018 presidential election and in 2019 recognized an opponent, Juan Guaidó, as the country’s legitimate president, a move followed by dozens of nations.

Since then, the US-led strategy has been to try and bring in Maduro to a new election through punitive economic sanctions.

But that policy has yet to influence Maduro, who last year broke off talks with the country’s opposition leaders that should have included a discussion on setting the conditions for a new presidential vote.

And in recent months, many countries have chosen to start engaging with the Maduro government, a reflection, in part, of the elections of the left across South America. Following the Sunday election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil, the six largest countries in Latin America are or will soon be led by leaders who profess leftist ideals.

Bolivia resumed normal relations with Venezuela after the election of Luis Arce in 2020. Peru did the same last year after the election of Pedro Castillo. Earlier this year, Argentine President Alberto Fernández said he would do something similar.

On Monday, Maduro said he and da Silva had talked on the phone and has decided to resume binational cooperation.

Boric, more critical

Perhaps it was the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric the most critical with Maduro. His center-right predecessor recognized Guaidó as the president of Venezuela. But since then Guaidó has not been mentioned on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nor was the Maduro government officially recognized.

In September, at an event at Columbia University, Boric said so the left cannot be afraid to condemn the bad actors among them.

“We can’t have a double rod“, She said.

Colombia, which until recently had only center and right-wing governments, has had a strained relationship with Venezuela since Chavez came to power.

But the relationship collapsed in 2019, when Colombia recognized Guaidó as Venezuelan president and Maduro has broken off relations with Bogotá.

Venezuelan opposition members alternately celebrated and condemned Petro’s visit.

In a press release sent to New York TimesGuaidó, who is still recognized by the United States as Venezuela’s president, called Maduro a “dictator” and said Petro must move away from “being complicit in violating human rights …”

But in an interview, Stalin González, part of another opposition faction, claimed that the international community he had exhausted the isolation strategy.

Only dialogue remains, he said, and the Venezuelan opposition must embrace the attempts of the new left in South America to bring Maduro to the negotiating table.

“I hope Petro is an ally of democracy in Venezuela,” González said. “In the past the strategy of pressure and more pressure has been used and it has not worked. We need people who encourage Maduro to democracy, to return to respect human rights and institutions.”

Petro called his decision to reestablish relations a practice.

There are more than 2 million Venezuelans living in Colombia, but noor there are consular services to help them, while the rupture ended billions of dollars in legal trade, fueling untaxed and illegal trade along the many dirt roads lining the countries’ extensive border.

However, there are signs that Petro’s interests may be closer to home. The Colombian president has staked his presidency on achieving what he calls “complete peace”, which involves the removal of the numerous armed groups of the country through peace agreements and other means.

Petro needs Maduro

But to reach it, Petro needs Madurowhich has allowed some of those groups, including a left-wing guerrilla called the National Liberation Army, to thrive in Venezuela.

Gunson said Maduro has a long history of trading in bad faith and questioned the idea that he would carry out whatever he promised Petro.

So far, it’s unclear whether Maduro has promised Petro anything in exchange for the highly public meeting.

Benigno Alarcón, director of the Center for Political Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University of Venezuela, he was equally skeptical that Petro can push Maduro towards democracy.

“If this relationship has political components, how I bet it will,” he said, his guess is that “somehow it will eventually favor the stability of the Maduro government… “.

New York Times

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