They are yellow at the forcible removal of the protagonist of Juan Guaido from Colombia on a daring escape from Venezuela who lands in the United States for three days. Venezuela’s opposition leader left his country by crossing the border into Colombia on foot as many of his compatriots have been doing for years to escape the repression and misery of Nicolás Maduro’s regime. It is very easy to cross the border between the two countries through the Cucuta Crossing in northeastern Colombia, which borders western Venezuela. Upon arriving in the neighboring country, after some “sixty hours of travel,” Guaido was not greeted as he likely expected, “forced” to leave Colombia, an opposition source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Speaking of “improper entry” into the country, Colombian authorities announced that Guaido was “transferred to El Dorado airport in Bogota” and boarded a commercial flight bound for Miami. Once in the United States, the politician re-launched through his Twitter profile his statements collected by the media denouncing that “the oppression of the Venezuelan dictatorship has reached Colombia”.
The crux of the story appears to be in fact the lack of chance – according to Bogotá – that Guaidó was in the Colombian capital at the same time that the conference was being promoted at the initiative of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, which sees about twenty countries gathered to try to relaunch the negotiations on Venezuela that had begun in Mexico City in August 2021, but it has been off since November.
Well, neither the Venezuelan opposition nor the government in Caracas were invited. According to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting was attended by Italy (represented by Ambassador to Colombia, Gerardo Amadozi), Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Spain, the United States, France, Honduras, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, St. Vincent and the Islands Grenadines, South Africa and Turkey. “I have just arrived in Colombia, as did millions of Venezuelans before me, on foot,” Guaido wrote on social media, referring to the seven million Venezuelans who fled the country due to the economic and political crisis.
The opposition leader is officially banned from leaving his country of origin and is subject to several court proceedings before the Venezuelan judiciary, including the case of “treason”. The aim of his trip to Bogota – as he confirms – was to listen to the parties that are meeting today in the Colombian capital to assess the future of dialogue in Venezuela at an international conference. Guaidó said he hoped the delegates would speak “on behalf of the violated human rights of Venezuelans”.
Before leaving Bogotá, the politician confirmed in a tweet: «Because of the direct threats to my family, my wife Fabiana, and my daughters from the Maduro regime, which has spread in Colombia, I am taking this flight. We will continue to fight until free elections are held in Venezuela.” The Venezuelan opposition condemns the fraud in the 2018 presidential election and says it faces judicial persecution and a lack of guarantees before next year’s elections, during which Maduro will seek re-election for the second time. For his part, the Venezuelan president aims to lift the sanctions. Economic.
The Colombian government wanted to shed light on the matter, confirming that Guaidó entered the country irregularly and made it clear that his departure took place on a scheduled flight to the United States with a ticket he had purchased and a regular entry visa to the territory of the United States. Regarding the allegations made in Bogota, Colombian President Gustavo Petro specified via Twitter that “Guaidó was not fired: it is better to exclude lies from politics.” The leader of the opposition in Caracas, the head of state, added, “There was an agreement to go to the United States. We have allowed it to continue on humanitarian grounds despite illegal entry into the country.”
“Prone to fits of apathy. Introvert. Award-winning internet evangelist. Extreme beer expert.”
