The international summit on Venezuela called by President Gustavo Petro in Colombia this week fell short of expectations, with participants repeating their initial statements at the end, according to commentators.
The meeting, which drew diplomats from around 20 countries to Bogotá, was also overshadowed by the expulsion of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who said he came to Colombia hoping to express the feelings of millions of Venezuelans trapped under the Nicolas Maduro regime to participating delegations. Guaidó, who arrived in Miami early Tuesday morning, has stated that a news conference will be held in the following days.
At the summit’s conclusion, Colombian Foreign Minister lvaro Leyva issued a brief statement summarizing the summit’s findings, emphasizing the importance of developing a plan for free and fair elections in Venezuela. However, whatever steps Caracas takes must be accompanied by the gradual lifting of US sanctions imposed on Venezuela, which must also be given access to billions of dollars set aside for humanitarian aid as a precondition for its participation in talks with opposition leaders in Mexico, according to Leyva’s statement.
That was the situation before to the conference, according to Asdrubal Aguilar, lawyer and secretary general of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas, a group comprised of more than 20 former Latin American and Spanish presidents.
Given the lack of outcomes, Guaidó’s treatment by Colombian officials ended up being the meeting’s main takeaway, he added. “There was a central figure, and his name was Juan Guaidó.” Until yesterday, he was Venezuela’s interim president, with constitutional authority that no country had questioned.” Efforts to find a negotiated solution to Venezuela’s lengthy crisis have stalled due to the regime’s desire for the US to withdraw sanctions quickly and Washington’s insistence that Caracas must take substantial steps to ensure free and fair elections.
The United States has emphasized that it has already provided sufficient good-faith signals by releasing Maduro’s two nephews who were serving time in New York for conspiring to import cocaine into the country, as well as removing another of the presidential couple’s nephews from the Treasury Department’s sanctions list.
Previous diplomatic engagements between Caracas and Washington also resulted in the Biden administration permitting US business Chevron to operate more freely in the South American country in the expectation of regaining access to US markets for Venezuelan oil. However, the Caracas government wants more concessions, including the restoration of access to the international banking system for the sanctioned state-run oil giant, Petroleos de Venezuela.
This week, the Maduro government wanted access to a $3 billion fund set up to meet the country’s humanitarian needs.
