The signing of an agreement with the alleged microstate of Liberland, an uninhabited “no man’s land”, about seven square kilometers in the heart of Europehas in the eye of the hurricane the mayor of the Colombian city of Manizales, Carlos Mario Marín, who this week even made the announcement in a public act.
In a broadcast on the social networks of the Mayor’s Office, Marín announced an “agreement with the city of Liberland, with which we will open 5,000 shares (learning English) through a virtual platform so that Manizales is a competitive city “.
“We are very pleased to sign this memorandum of cooperation between Liberland and its people, represented by Randy Thompson (…) and the Manizales government and its people,” said the official, referring to his interlocutor, an alleged representative of the European microstate.
Diplomatic relations
Even the agreement, added Marín, is looking for “establish reciprocal diplomatic relations“to” build capacity for future teamwork plans “with a country where no one lives, where there are no buildings, and is recognized only by another unrecognized nation, the Republic of Somaliland.
The mayor of Manizales, capital of the Caldas coffee department, also ignored that the management of diplomatic relations is the responsibility of the national government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and not of local authorities.
In the pictures, the mayor points out that Thompson, who is a young man, was a member of the United States Army and participated in the Vietnam War. which ended 47 years ago.
The video, later removed from the official networks of the Mayor’s Office, unleashed a shower of ridicule and criticism against Marín, who did not comment on the story.
The alleged “country”
The self-proclaimed “Free Republic of Liberland”, according to its website, it is located on the banks of the Danube River, between Serbia and Croatiaand it claims to be a direct democracy of liberal belief.
Its founder was the Czech conservative politician Vit Jedlicka, who has been arrested several times by the Croatian authorities, who do not recognize his “state”.
The small territory, such as Serbia and Croatia called “virtual joke”, It is located on a temporary border between these two Balkan countries, over which they both maintain a dispute.
Liberland has an area of seven square kilometers uninhabited and its founders consider it the third smallest state in the world, behind Monaco and the Vatican.
According to US media, Thompson, of whom little is known, was in prison in 2015 for stealing from his employer in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
However, the controversial Liberland representative confirmed, in an interview published this Thursday by Red + Noticias, that he was arrested in the United States, but that he was released from prison because the charges had been denied.
Source: EFE
PB
Source: Clarin
