Colombian gigantism – Analitica.com

It was the ratified Colombian foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva, who uttered the off-kilter phrase that his task at the head of the foreign office is to “continue making Colombia bigger” using, as a spearhead, the leadership of Gustavo Petro on a planetary scale. This suggests that the national president is one of those who believes, or his close advisers have led him to believe, that his recent international efforts have not only been successful, but also place him at an advantage on the international scene.

The Colombian president did not find out, then, about the large diplomatic “gaffe” that he starred in the last “foreign ministers’ summit” – only 3 of 20 participants attended – convened in Bogotá to support Nicolas Maduro in his purpose for get the US sanctions lifted to, from there, be in a position to move towards free and verifiable elections in Venezuela. Leyva has not told his boss that, in the international arena, more than bland unilateral declarations are needed to show off successes, and it is also necessary for them to be recognized.

Because that was, in the end, the result of the aforementioned Bogotá Summit and all its prolegomena: Petro’s trip to Washington and the various meetings with his Venezuelan counterpart: a monumental fiasco…. All that emerged there was a pyrrhic statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the content of which clearly infers that not one inch of progress was made in reviving democracy in Venezuela through a negotiating process between the Madurista regime and the opposition that leads them. to the safe harbor of a fair and credible electoral contest.

Worse than nothing, it has become clear to observers that Gustavo Petro continues to make common cause with Miraflores in criticizing and promoting the dismantling of US sanctions before taking a single step in favor of unraveling the talks in Mexico. Petro learned Maduro’s primer well and repeats a number of figures provided from Caracas according to which Venezuela would have fallen into an economic moat due to the paralysis of the hydrocarbons trade caused by the United States.

The part that Petro cannot see clearly – and his Foreign Minister and immediate collaborator does not know the evidence either – is that the only thing that the Venezuelan regime is pursuing is the dismantling of those sanctions that affect him personally, as well as those close to him, for grotesque and criminal violations of human rights, for gross and rampant corruption in the exercise of their positions, for their collusion with narco-terrorism that affects the security of Washington. Petro stands in solidarity, before the entire planet, with the Venezuelan dictator, ignoring a series of elements that turn out to be inalienable values ​​of the international community as a whole. For example, Petro would do well to closely follow the investigations and prosecutions of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed by the neighboring regime, before proclaiming himself in favor of the return of Maduro’s Venezuela to the inter-American human rights system.

Petro continues without giving a ball to the head of the executive of his country. His determination to bring about reforms and the lack of results in the past 9 months has made him do without part of his ministerial team at the stroke of a pen. The same thing happens in the international arena. Neither his “cantinférica” ​​statements on environmental issues, nor his dedicated energy policy that will penalize his country at a time of enormous economic fragility, nor his aspirations for the legalization of drugs without the existence of a project to discourage consumption, are demonstrations. respectable leadership or diplomatic gigantism. Leyva will continue, then, plowing in the sea…