“The doors are open to him”

The doors of Belarus are open to the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, If he wants to leave his country, the Belarusian president declared this on Tuesday: Alexander Lukashenko, after holding consultations this weekend with White House envoy John Cole.

“Maduro has never been our enemy or our adversary. If I wanted to come to Belarus, our doors are always open to him”, he said in an interview with the American channel Newsmax TV broadcast by the Belarusian state agency BELTA.

However, Lukashenko considered the last dictator of Europeclarified that “this question, honestly, has never been addressed.”

“An honest and sensible man”

“Maduro is not the type of person who gives up everything and goes away, runs away. He’s a tough guy. He’s a ‘Chavista,’ he’s a tough guy like (former Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez.. An honest and sensible manwith whom you can talk and reach agreements,” he said.

Although he acknowledged that news was spreading in Belarusian media of an alleged deal for Maduro to go into exile in Belarus, Lukashenko clarified that “no“We never talked to Maduro about it.”

“Honestly, we talk more about Venezuela with the Americans than with Maduro about his resignation. He is a man brave“, he added.

Lukashenko also used the opportunity to reject accusations made by United States President Donald Trump that link Maduro to drug trafficking and noted that Americans “They have no proof, and me neither. I think this is not the case.

“Drugs, like many other things such as human trafficking, prostitution and (illegal) arms trafficking, are part of our reality. We must face them. But You can’t beat drugs with missiles“, he warned.

He said the drug problem is global and “we must look for new methods” to deal with it. “We must think and not wage war,” he said.

He criticized the United States’ decision not to recognize the presidential elections in Venezuela and warned that if the United States attacked the Caribbean nation, the Venezuelan people would consolidate around the figure of Maduro. “This is something that cannot be done under any circumstances,” he said.

He stressed that the non-recognition of elections in third countries by the United States is a common practice and recalled that during the presidency of Joe Biden, “you did not recognize any elections”.

Lukashenko and Cole held consultations last weekend, after which Minsk agreed to pardon 123 prisoners, including key opposition leaders, in exchange for lifting of sanctions on Belarusian potassium.

The United States government does not recognize Maduro’s legitimacy in Venezuela and accuses him of leading the Cartel of the Suns, a group allegedly linked to drug trafficking, although Venezuelan officials like Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello consider it an “invention.”

Venezuela, in response, has been in permanent military mobilization throughout its territory for months. The American naval deployment is the largest in the history of the North American country since the first Persian Gulf War (1990-1991), according to a study carried out by experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).