Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday offered to reestablish ties with Colombia, but not without stressing that an arrested ally of his counterpart Ivan Duque \u201cis telling everything about Colombia\u2019s ruling class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a televised speech, Maduro invited his Colombian counterpart \u201cto reestablish consular relations\u201d he broke off in February last year after a failed attempt by opposition leader Juan Guaido to force US aid trucks into Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nice Maduro
\nVenezuela\u2019s authoritarian president made the offer after authorities on Monday arrested former Senator-elect Aida Merlano, a former congressional ally of the Colombian president who broke prison in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duque rejected the deal and said \u201cthe dictatorship cannot hide behind arguments to take advantage\u201d of the Colombia\u2019s president\u2019s weakened position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Colombian president insisted that he would seek Merlano\u2019s extradition through Interpol, despite Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian leader\u2019s offer to \u201cbe pragmatic\u201d and reestablish consular ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ivan Duque, listen to me. Venezuela has political conflicts with all European countries and all European countries have an ambassador, they have consuls in Venezuela and we have permanent communication with the foreign ministers from Europe, which is at 8,000 to 10,000 kilometers from Venezuela. With Colombia we are neighbors for more than 2,000 kilometers, we have 6 million Colombians living in Venezuela yet Ivan Duque refuses to have relations with the legitimate government in office I preside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
\n\u201cIvan Duque, enough of this senselessness, enough of this ideological fanaticism, enough of this political extremism. Put your feet on the ground and let\u2019s be pragmatic,\u201d the authoritarian leader implored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The not so nice Maduro
\nMaduro made it clear, however, that Duque\u2019s refusal to reestablish ties would have consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venezuela\u2019s intelligence agency SEBIN has been interrogating Merlano \u201cand she has begun telling everything,\u201d the neighbors\u2019 president said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SEBIN Director General [Gustavo] Gonzalez Lopez informs me that SEBIN has Senator Aida Merlano in custody and that she has already begun to testify and is telling everything about Colombia\u2019s ruling class, everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
\nWithout even trying to be subtle, Maduro said that \u201cI hope to make all these things public soon, but this could be arranged super quick if there was communication, if there was a relation, if there wasn\u2019t as much ideological extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duque can only lose
\nWhile a deal to keep Merlano\u2019s alleged testimonies under the table in exchange for the reestablishment of consular relations sounds simple, it would end Duque\u2019s \u201cdiplomatic fence\u201d to isolate Maduro and force him to leave power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governments of Colombia and the US want Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to assume power and organize new elections, which Maduro has refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maduro expelled their diplomats in February last year after Guaido\u2019s failed attempt to force American aid trucks over the border from Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Colombia some 50 countries from the Americas and Europe have refused to recognize Maduro\u2019s 2016 elections, but all want Maduro and the opposition to negotiate a way out of the country\u2019s institutional crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now US President Donald Trump is facing an impeachment trial and his administration has hinted also to favor negotiations, Duque is the only leader left to support Gauido\u2019s refusal to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Colombian president\u2019s refusal to accept Maduro\u2019s deal is risky; Duque\u2019s approval rating is virtually on the floor and Merlano is a close associate of some of his most powerful coalition partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any testimony from the former lawmaker, true or false, could further damage the governability of Colombia\u2019s president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday offered to reestablish ties with Colombia, but not without stressing that an arrested ally of his counterpart Ivan Duque \u201cis telling everything about Colombia\u2019s ruling class.\u201d In a televised speech, Maduro invited his Colombian counterpart \u201cto reestablish consular relations\u201d he broke off in February last year after a failed attempt by opposition leader Juan… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4141,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}