Maduro insists on his call to the Colombian military to join Venezuela

Caracas.- The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, insisted this Thursday on his call to the Colombian military to join the people and the Venezuelan Armed Forces to defend sovereignty “as a single Army”, in a context marked by the military deployment of the United States in the Caribbean Sea, rejected by both Caracas and Bogotá.

“I called upon the people of Colombia, the military of Colombia, the homeland of Colombia to unite with the people of Venezuela, to defend sovereignty as a single army, as a single people, and today I ratify the call for unity in defense of the right to peace,” Maduro stated at an event to deliver the rehabilitation works of a metrocable (cable car) system in Caracas, broadcast by the state-owned channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).

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The leader maintained that “nobody is going to take him out” of that idea, which he had already announced on Wednesday, because, he added, if one day Colombia were attacked, Venezuela would defend it without “hesitation”. This Thursday, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said that Maduro should not give orders to the military of the Andean nation and that the only way for these two nations to unite is with “the constituent power and popular sovereignty”. “As long as that doesn’t happen, no one can give orders to the other Army, I cannot order the Venezuelan Army anything, nor can they give orders to the Colombian Army,” he said in a press conference about the report on the fight against smuggling and audit findings. The Colombian president pointed out that the only binational armed organization, “made up of Venezuelans and Colombians, is called ELN (National Liberation Army).” Maduro on Wednesday called on the Colombian military to a “perfect union” with Venezuela in favor of the sovereignty of these neighboring nations, whose governments reject the US air-naval deployment and its attacks against vessels allegedly loaded with drugs.

Peace Flags

On the other hand, the Venezuelan president asked the people of the United States to “raise the flags of peace”, after his American counterpart, Donald Trump, ordered to block the sanctioned oil tankers that travel from and to the South American country. “What is intended here, with all these plans, is a change of regime, and the people of the United States know it,” said the Chavista leader. Maduro indicated that all products produced in the country will continue to go to the foreign market. Last week, the U.S. Southern Command, which has attacked more than 30 boats allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, changed its operations in international waters by seizing the tanker Skipper, which was transporting Venezuelan crude oil near the coast of the South American country and was intercepted under a court order. Trump stated this Wednesday that Venezuela took away the oil rights from American companies and said he wants them back, something that has been rejected by the South American country.