The United States took a stand on Wednesday (2) on the meeting between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who respect Colombia’s sovereignty to decide its foreign relations, but they remembered ” the human rights violations” that took place in Venezuela.
“The Maduro regime, and this is evident to the entire world, has generated a precarious economic, political and human rights situation in Venezuela,” he said. State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news conference when asked about the meeting.
Price said the US “respects the sovereign right of each government to conduct its foreign policy.” , but also asked to “defend the democratic rules broken by authoritarian regimes such as Maduro’s in Venezuela”.
The spokesman reiterated that the government of Joe Biden is committed to the return of dialogues in the Mexico City between Maduro’s team and the Venezuelan opposition, broken last year by the Venezuelan president.
As long as negotiations are not resumed, Price said, the sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the United States “will remain”.
“We have been very persuasive in promoting accountability for the human rights violations that have taken place and are taking place in Venezuela. Our position will not change”, he warned.
The spokesperson called on “Colombia to work with its partners and in international forums to defend a prosperous and democratic continent”.
And he explained that the situation in Venezuela was a priority issue at the meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Petro in early October, in Bogotá.
Petro and Maduro met yesterday in Caracas to stage the re-establishment of relations between the two countries, which had been broken for almost four years.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, today gave his “warm good wishes welcome” to the open dialogue between the governments of Colombia and Venezuela, stating that it would be a good way to resolve the humanitarian crisis.
