São Paulo. – The presidents of
Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, celebrated this Thursday during a phone call the decision of the Venezuelan Government to release national and foreign prisoners.
The leaders, according to a statement from the Brazilian Presidency, “welcomed” the announcement made today by the leader of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, days after President Nicolás Maduro was captured during a military operation and taken to the United States.
On the other hand, the leaders expressed their “great concern with the use of force against a South American country”, which, they assured, constitutes a “
violation” of international law and Venezuelan sovereignty.
In that sense, they stated that the situation in the country “must be resolved exclusively by peaceful means, (through) negotiation and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people.”
Therefore, the presidents agreed to continue “cooperating” to achieve peace in Venezuela, a country with which both nations share a long border.
The US intervention in Venezuela
Lula condemned the US intervention from the outset, considering that it crossed an “unacceptable line”, and called for a “vigorous” reaction from the United Nations.
However, the Brazilian leader, who plans to contest the presidential elections scheduled for October, has not commented live on the Venezuelan situation, a highly politicized issue in Brazil.
Petro, for his part, launched criticisms of the operation and engaged in a war of words with the US President, Donald Trump, who even raised the need for similar actions in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
After days of tension, the Colombian and the American held their first telephone conversation on Wednesday to calm the atmosphere.
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Jorge Rodríguez announced this Thursday the “release” of “a significant number of people”, including Venezuelans and foreigners -without specifying the number or conditions-, as a “unilateral gesture” to “consolidate peace and peaceful coexistence in the country”.
The announcement of the
releases comes after the US President,
Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday the supposed closure of a “torture chamber” in Caracas, amid the pressure exerted on the government of the now acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, by US troops.
