The Pope urges to guarantee the sovereignty and good of Venezuela after Maduro’s capture

Vatican City.- Pope Leo XIV affirmed this Sunday that “the good of the Venezuelan people must prevail” over any other consideration, after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States, and urged to guarantee sovereignty and the rule of law in the Caribbean country. “With a spirit full of concern, I follow the development of the situation in Venezuela. The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over all other considerations and lead to overcoming violence and taking paths of justice and peace,” he said from the window of the Apostolic Palace after the Angelus prayer.

The pontiff called for “guaranteeing the country’s sovereignty, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each and every one”.

But he also encouraged working “to build together a serene future of collaboration, stability and concord, with special attention to the poorest who suffer because of the difficult economic situation” of the South American country. Leo XIV asked to pray for the future of Venezuela and asked for the intercession of the patron saint of the country, the Virgen de Coromoto, and of its first two saints José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles, precisely canonized by himself on October 19th. The American pontiff, also with Peruvian nationality due to his years as a missionary and bishop and a great connoisseur of Latin America, has referred on several occasions and with the utmost caution to Venezuela since he was elected in conclave on May 8th. The last time was during the return flight from his trip to Lebanon on December 2, when he bet on seeking dialogue and even “economic pressures” to favor a change in the Caribbean country, in the face of threats from US President Donald Trump.

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“I think it’s always better to look for ways of dialogue or pressure, perhaps economic pressure, but looking for another way to change, if that’s what the United States wants to do,” he said. A month earlier, on November 4th from his residence in Castel Gandolfo, he again advocated for dialogue to ease relations between the United States and Venezuela, in the midst of Washington’s operation against ships allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea. A stance that was appreciated by Maduro himself: “Thank you Pope Leo, thank you very much,” responded the then president during the congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. In September, shortly before the canonization of the first two saints of Venezuela, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado asked the Pope to intercede for political prisoners in the South American country.

On the other hand, the issue is followed with interest in a Holy See that has the Venezuelan archbishop Edgar Peña Parra as a substitute or ‘number two’ of its Secretariat of State, headed by Cardinal Pietro Parolín, until 2013 nuncio in the South American country.