Colombia says it has no reason to deny Maduro a possible asylum request

Bogotá.- The Colombian Government stated this Thursday that it has no reason to deny a possible asylum request from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, should he leave power in his country, amid tensions over the naval and military deployment that the United States has maintained since August in the Caribbean. “In the moment of tension that exists, we must negotiate and surely if the United States demands a transition or a change, it is something that they must assess if that exit implies that he (Maduro) must live in another country or seek protection, because Colombia would not have to say no,” said the Colombian chancellor, Rosa Villavicencio, in an interview with the radio station Caracol Radio. Villavicencio, however, said that if Maduro steps down from power, he does not believe he will choose Colombia for exile. “I think I would choose some more distant and more tranquil place,” he added. The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, stated on Wednesday that Venezuela needs a “democratic revolution” and not “inefficient repressions,” when commenting on the retention and cancellation of Cardinal Baltazar Porras’ passport at Caracas airport. “The Maduro government must understand that the response to external aggression is not just military enlistment but a democratic revolution. It is with more democracy that a country is defended, not with more inefficient repressions,” Petro stated on his X account, in an unusual criticism of the Venezuelan president. You can also read: https://ab.deultimominuto.net/internacionales/sanciona-3-sobrinos-de-maduro/ In that sense, he suggested a general amnesty for opponents instead of increasing imprisonments and insisted on his idea of a broad transition government to end the crisis in the oil-producing country.

The United States Military Deployment

Since September, the US Armed Forces have destroyed more than twenty vessels allegedly loaded with drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific, near Venezuela and Colombia, which has caused the death of more than 80 people. The U.S. ruler, Donald Trump, has promised on several occasions that attacks will begin “soon” within Venezuelan territory, while Maduro has called on his citizens to unite against what he considers “threats” from Washington and to enlist in the citizen militias.