Colombia: Gustavo Petro considers it “prudent” that Nicolás Maduro does not attend his inauguration as president

This was stated on Tuesday by the elected president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro it doesn’t seem wise that the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, participate in his investiture, which will take place on 7 August in Bogotá.

Petro referred to this topic in an interview with the WRadioin which also commented on the possibility of resuming diplomatic relations with Venezuela, broken since 23 February 2019 by order of Maduro in the midst of an escalation of tensions due to the recognition of his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque, to the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as interim president.

In this sense, he reiterated that the current government is in charge of the investiture acts, but that “it seems prudent” that Maduro does not participate. because the resumption of relationships is “a process of rebuilding many things”, which “does not require acceleration or symbolic things that are not the most important today”.

Colombia and Venezuela have more than 2,300 kilometers of common border and they share several problemssuch as the massive arrival of Venezuelan migrants in Colombian territory, the actions of illegal groups on both sides of the border and the paralysis of trade between the two countries, which has repeatedly become a millionaire.

On Saturday Duque referred to Maduro’s possible assistance in investing Petro, who will be the first progressive president in Colombia, and said that As long as he is the president of the country, the Venezuelan sovereign will not enter to the national territory because it is not recognized as a legitimate Head of State.

“It is not about letting in or not letting in, it’s that Nicolás Maduro is not recognized by me as the legitimate president of Venezuela and as long as I am the president of Colombia, he will not enter Colombian territory as president of Venezuela,” he said.

The arguments

In the interview, Petro spoke in addition to the conversation he had with Maduro after the election, in which there was no mention of “specific issues”.

However, he said “there are some priority issues: open border trade, recover the border for the two states – which implies running, cornering, dislodging the armed groups that are today on both sides of the border -, and the third has to do with Monómeros “.

Monómeros is a petrochemical company with Colombian state participation and Petróleos de Venezuela, which Guaidó came to control in 2019 and is in legal disputes.

It is “the company that produced most of the agricultural fertilizers in Colombia, which we now import at prices three times higher than the prices that existed at the beginning of the crisis and which has produced the growth of all food prices. , “said Petro, who said led to “hunger growth”.

For this reason, he added that when he takes over the Presidency he will promote the resumption of “the subsidized production of fertilizers in Colombia”which at this moment depends on imports from Russia, with which “it would solve a big problem at this unexpected moment, namely hunger”.

three women ministers

Petro also announced the names of three ministers who will form his cabinet, which he promised will be joint, to lead the portfolios of Agriculture, Health and Environment.

During his political campaign, Petro promised it at least 50% of all public positions would be held by women have a “real representation” of half the population.

The economist and former senator Cecilia Lopez Montano He will be in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, a portfolio he had already managed in the 1990s during his long career in the state, mostly in liberal governments.

Petro proposes to implement an agrarian reform that will help strengthen the country’s food sovereignty to reduce the import of tons of food and supplies.

environmentalist and political scientist Susanna Mohamed will lead the Ministry of the Environment. He is currently a Bogotá advisor for the Colombia Humana party, led by Petro. She worked closely with the president-elect, participated in the presidential campaign and during her tenure as mayor, between 2012 and 2015, she was Secretary of the Environment.

The fight against climate change It is one of the flags of the Petro, which promises to protect ecosystems and especially the Amazon, hit by deforestation.

It also proposes to change the “policies of death” to those of “life”, which in practice would imply the acceleration of the energy transition and, therefore, the reduction of dependence on hydrocarbons by not granting new oil exploration licenses or allowing fracking trials, a technique used to extract gas and oil from deep rocks.

Meanwhile, the psychiatrist and the political scientist Carolina Corcho will be head of the Ministry of Health. The next official is part of a trade association and during the pandemic she called for better working conditions, elements of biosecurity and decent wages for doctors.

Petro has promised he will changes in the current health system towards a more preventive public modelwhich does not depend on the taxpayers’ ability to pay but which guarantees “timely access” to services.

With these appointments, Petro forms the team of the first progressive government in Colombia which will start on 7 August. In recent days he has announced himself as his finance minister the famous economist José Antonio Ocampo and the conservative Álvaro Leyva Durán to manage the chancellery.

Source: EFE, AP and Clarin

PB