2024-08-15 20:10:13
Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of Brazil, and Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, changed the pace in mediation to resolve the political deadlock in Venezuela. With this movement, the mantra of demand “minute, minute, minute” takes a back seat. This Thursday, the two have presented some options to President Nicolás Maduro with the intention of peacefully solving the problem that opened after the elections of the elections of July 28 among the Venezuelans.
Lula has presented his idea of new elections and a coalition government in an interview, while Petro has presented in X a detailed plan based on the “experience of the Colombian Republic.” The steps will be: “Lifting all sanctions against Venezuela. National and international amnesty. Total support for political action. Changing government relations. New free polls. ” The two leaders spoke this Thursday to adjust their positions.
Although at first the US President, Joe Biden, answered with “yes” to a journalist’s question about whether he supported the re-election in Venezuela, hours later the White House explained that he interpreted it. The US position was revealed, recently, by the spokesman for the White House Security Council, John Kirby, who wrote that Washington wants to give incentives to Maduro to leave power. “Edmundo González is the winner of the elections,” Kirby reiterated, once again urging the Venezuelan government to make election records public.
Brazil’s Lula has confirmed, in an interview, that he does not intend to recognize a Maduro victory without seeing official records and has suggested the possibility of the Venezuelan president calling new elections. Of course, for future elections he has asked for recommendations that those of the 28-J do not have and he has mentioned a possible coalition government. The leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, has made it clear that she rejects another election, which Chavismo does not want either. Some and others declared themselves the winner.
Brazilian and Colombian diplomats are leading mediation after Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador dropped out of the leading group of mediators, according to Brazilian officials.
For Petro, it is important that the crisis be resolved peacefully, since it shares a wide border with Venezuela and his country has welcomed nearly three million Venezuelans in recent years.
A political solution for Venezuela that brings peace and prosperity to its people depends on Nicolás Maduro.
The experience of the Colombian presence is an experience that, used for a while, can help lead to an important solution.
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) August 15, 2024
Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have promoted international mediation in the last two weeks after the opposition accused Chavismo, with a copy of the minutes in hand, of stealing the victory and refusing Maduro to show his declaration with a document of authority. Until now, these diplomatic efforts have the support of the United States and the European Union and many Latin American countries. Now that López Obrador has announced that he prefers to wait for what the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela, controlled by Chavismo, says, Presidents Lula and Petro are looking for new ways to get out of the paralysis.
Avoid violence
It is important to avoid violence after 25 protesters died in the repression of protests and while 1,200 people were detained. Neither the UN nor the Carter Center, which has little monitoring activity on the ground, approved the official result.
“Maduro knows that he is a statement in the world,” Lula said in a radio interview. “You have many options, you can form a coalition government,” he said, referring to his Cabinet, which includes a dozen parties, in addition to his own. “If Maduro has common sense, he can also send the matter to the people, who knows whether to call new elections, establish procedures for all candidates to participate, create a party-based electoral commission, let everyone participate and let the observers participate. ., he explained.
Full respect for the justice of the elections on 28-J is one of the red lines that Machado raises in any negotiation with the government: “Please, in whose head can another election be possible? There is already one here, under the government’s laws, with absolutely unequal campaign,” he said in an interview with EL PAÍS.
Lula noted this Thursday that the international community will pose greater questions to the government in the face of the new election after Machado has been banned from working, even though he has received a large number of primaries, since his first intention as a convert is still unknown. Edmundo González Urrutia, a diplomat with a quiet approach who challenged Maduro at the polls, is his third choice.
The opposition maintains pressure on the government, but Machado and González Urrutia remain in hiding for fear of reprisals. The two leaders have called on millions of their followers both in Venezuela and in the rest of the world – millions of Venezuelans have had to leave their homeland due to the policy of recent years – to mobilize this Saturday to defend a victory that, according to their minutes, the voters gave him in the elections.
The process that Petro mentioned is the so-called National Front in Colombia, with which two traditional parties, Liberal and Conservative, changed the government for 16 years, between 1958 and 1974, with the purpose of removing it from power. to General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. “It is an experience that, used for a while, can help lead to an important solution,” according to the Colombian president.
Brazilian diplomacy does not want to rush. Lula said in the interview and was emphasized by his main adviser on international politics, former foreign minister and ambassador Celso Amorim. “My 60 years in diplomacy tell me that indifference is not a good counsellor,” he told Honorable Members. It is widely known that the term of Maduro’s government only ends in January 2025. Latin American mediators believe that there is room for wisdom until then, although some countries, led by the United States, have recognized the opposition candidate as the winner of election, but, no, special difference, like the president-elect.
Now, the Venezuelan crisis is not among the priorities of Washington, on the brink of elections and in the nearness of the crisis in the Middle East, or of the EU, with views set on the Ukrainian invasion of Russia.
But Amorim has also made it clear to the Brazilian fool to recognize an opponent’s victory on the basis of the nature of the minutes he has, because this will “pre-order.” The diplomat also ruled out any ultimatum against Maduro. He explained that when he went to Caracas to follow the elections on behalf of Lula, he did not meet Machado because “someone has to maintain contact with the Government” of Maduro. And he stressed that Brazil maintains dialogue with him “at the highest level.”
Petro, a murderous tweeter who has never distinguished himself by being involved in his opinions and is clear about the political conflicts that have shaken Peru or Guatemala recently, has practiced unusual restraint in his messages from the Venezuelan elections to the room for diplomatic negotiations. In his few statements he has emphasized the need for a negotiated solution. Lula has also been a believer. His statement suggesting new elections is the second time he has referred to the issue since May 28.
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