“It is time to obtain a general amnesty and a transitional government” in Venezuela, declared the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, this Wednesday (10), the same day that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the leader of the opposition to the dictatorship, María Corina Machado.
“Venezuela’s problem is more democracy and it is time to have a general amnesty and a transitional government with the inclusion of all,” wrote the Colombian president on the social network X, while María Corina secretly went to Oslo.
However, this policy did not come in time and his daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, received the Nobel Prize in his place with a speech against the “brutal dictatorship” of Venezuela. María Corina has been in hiding since August 2024, shortly after elections with evidence of fraud that brought back Nicolás Maduro for a third term.
Critical of both the pressure exerted by Washington on Caracas and the conduct of the elections, Petro insisted on a peaceful exit from the political crisis.
“The Maduro government must understand that the response to external aggression is not limited to military mobilization, but rather to a democratic revolution. A country defends itself with more democracy, and not with more ineffective repression,” added the Colombian president, who warned of possible violations of the sovereignty of Latin American countries by the White House.
Under Donald Trump, the United States is leading the largest military mobilization in Latin America in decades. The most radical members of the Republican government, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are behind the scenes advocating military intervention aimed at overthrowing Maduro.
In this context, the United States has already deployed immense firepower near the coast of Colombia’s neighbor Venezuela, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, the largest warship in the world. American attacks on boats in the region have left 87 dead since September — Washington accuses, without presenting evidence, that the boats were transporting drugs to the United States.
In August 2024, the Colombian president had already sent a similar message, in which he proposed suspending “all sanctions against Venezuela” and decreeing a “general national and international amnesty”.
Petro negotiated the release of political prisoners in Venezuela, many of whom were Colombians imprisoned as mercenaries. According to the latest Penal Forum report, there are at least 893 political prisoners in Venezuela.
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