“Maduro is a dictator”, message from Duque to Biden

The summit of Iván Duque and Joe Biden leaves an ambiguous message. On the one hand, Colombia is ratified as the main ally of the United States in Latin America, but in this strategic relationship there does not seem to be an important line for the interests of the Duque administration in the region in relation to Venezuela.

Biden and Duque had a 40-minute meeting at the White House, the leaders’ first official meeting since the Democrat came to power. The Nicolás Maduro regime, NATO, oil and coal imports and international cooperation were the central issues of that long-awaited conversation from the Casa de Nariño.

The Biden-Duke appointment would not have happened in these times without taking into account the current scenario of international politics. Emissaries from the US government met with delegates from the Venezuelan government over the weekend, there has been a war in Europe for 16 days over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin is increasing its presence in South America.

The letter came in the midst of NATO’s expansionist spirit to ratify its alliances around the globe, given the consolidation of Vladimir Putin as a president who demonstrates his ability to skip all international norms.

Precisely, the United States ratified Colombia as a non-NATO member strategic ally, being the only one in Latin America that is within the Transatlantic Alliance with that status. Along with this accolade, the Democrat ruled that the country is his main ally in this area of ​​the world.

While Ukraine is bleeding and Europe receives more than 2.3 million refugees, on this side of the world Russia is increasing its military presence on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, an issue that Iván Duque highlighted to his counterpart during the bilateral dialogue.

The president insisted that Nicolás Maduro continues to be a dictator for Colombia and the United States, affirming that both maintain their objective of achieving a transition to democracy and that the position against the regime has not changed.

The White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, specified that Colombia did not serve as a bridge for the rapprochement of the United States with Venezuela and that this was only done to seek the release of imprisoned gringo citizens, including businessmen from the Citgo oil company.

But the facts show that behind the scenes the chips are moving like never before since January 2019, when the United States and its friends turned their backs on Maduro to promote Guaidó to the rhetorical Presidency.

While in Washington the delegation from Colombia met with the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, the president of the Senate, Bob Menéndez, and a large bipartisan delegation, Venezuela also moved its chips.

The Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, and Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia, traveled to Turkey to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov; Guaidó’s Venezuela met with Duque through ambassador Carlos Vecchio, so the diplomatic channels are active and in two ways.

Iván Duque asked his counterpart that Latin America “not be involved in a geopolitical battle”, but it is too late for that claim. In the midst of a war in Europe that rearranges international politics, the democrat took time to meet with the Colombian president, an issue that had not happened in the 14 months that he has been in government.

There was one more message from Duque to Biden: that the country has more capacity than Venezuela to sell it oil. This affirmation confirms that the United States did build a bridge to Caracas looking for crude oil and that Colombia is uncomfortable with this new front.