The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petrodeclared this Thursday that his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro“is not obliged to give orders” to the Colombian army, after having called for the unity of the military of the two countries to … respond to the hostilities of the United States in its so-called operation against drug trafficking.
“No, he is not obliged to give orders to the military (…) No one can give orders to the other army. “I cannot give orders to the Venezuelan army or the Colombian army,” he responded in statements to journalists.
The president defended that “the only way for two nations to unite is through constituent power and popular sovereignty” and recalled that “the only binational armed organization composed of Venezuelans and Colombians is called the ELN (National Liberation Army), which is dedicated to human trafficking.” cocaine and murder of peasants“.
“The ELN is an enemy of Colombia and Venezuela and an enemy of Latin America. If I surrendered my arms, I would cease to be so,” Petro said, before emphasizing that “I sought to bring the government of Venezuela with its army to surround the military intentions of the ELN” on the border.
Petro thus responded to the statements of his Venezuelan counterpart, who had addressed the Colombian military the day before to unite against “all the evil that the American empire is trying to do to us today”. “I call on you for a perfect union with Venezuela so that no one dares to touch the sovereignty of our countries and to exercise the rule of (Simón) Bolívar of permanent union and shared happiness,” he declared during an event broadcast by the VTV television channel.
“There has been a maxim of empires for a century (that is) divide and conquer, and how much they have done to divide Colombia from Venezuela, every day. And the greatest guarantee we have of peace, stability and respect in the world is unity. This is why I call today with the deep love of the Great Colombian that I feel, to the ordinary Colombian people, to their social movements, to their political forces, to the Colombian army that I know very well,” he stressed amid the escalation of tensions with the American administration.
This same week, the President Donald Trump He ordered the “complete and total” blockade of tankers entering and leaving the Venezuelan coast, demanded delivery of crude oil that he says belongs to the North American country and declared Maduro’s “regime” a terrorist organization. In response, Caracas requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and denounced what it calls a “serious and criminal aggression,” a “delusion” by Trump and a “warlike” attempt to turn Venezuela into a colony.
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