Maduro and Petro meet in Caracas; ICC calls for reopening investigation into crimes against humanity

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, met for the first time since the beginning of his administration with the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.

The first meeting between heads of state of the two countries in seven years took place in Caracas this Tuesday (1st). After the meeting, both stated that they intend to work for Latin American integration and against climate change, among other areas.

Diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela, re-established shortly after Petro took office. , in early August, had been broken in February 2019 by order of Maduro after the Colombian president at the time, Iván Duque, expressed support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized as the Venezuelan president by United States and Brazil.

Maduro said this Tuesday that he and Petro talked about economic relations, about a “total and safe” opening of the border between Colombia and Venezuela and about Monomeros, Barranquilla-based fertilizer company that is owned by a Venezuelan state-owned company, but has since 2019 been managed by directors appointed by Guaidó – in September, the Petro government returned management to the Venezuelan dictatorship.

“We talked about multilateral issues ; on Venezuela’s return to the Andean Community; on the steps to reconsider an Inter-American Human Rights System. On the strengthening of American states”, added the dictator.

Maduro said that the first contact was “fruitful” and that Petro would always be “welcome to the homeland of Bolívar.”

“After several years, the Colombian and Venezuelan presidents are meeting and talking again. To start over a path that is difficult, but that has to be covered. And that starts with the reconstruction of the border. The border is in the hands of the mafias, whose head is multinational. This is the expression of a failure that is the war on drugs”, said Petro.

“We are going to rebuild even the relationships that existed in the area of ​​intelligence, in order to be able to reach not so much the workers of the drug trafficking, but the owners of capital who are almost never affected and who are dangerous for political stability”, said the Colombian president.

Investigation in The Hague

This Tuesday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, presented to the Investigating Chamber I of The Hague a request for authorization to resume the investigation into crimes against humanity committed in the Venezuela.

Khan justified that the judicial procedures and legal reforms carried out by the Maduro regime to investigate and mitigate these occurrences “remain insufficient or have not yet had any concrete impact on potentially relevant processes”. .

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