• Latin America Maduro and Petro, even more united by "providence"

Fourth chapter of the political romance between Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro under the principles of "mutual respect, self-determination and complementarity". The Colombian president has traveled today to Caracas for the third time to meet with the leader of the Bolivarian revolution, the fourth summit between the two to also count the one that took place in February on the binational border.

An "emotional meeting" without an official agenda but with pending issues, such as negotiations for "total peace" with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the constant lubrication of diplomatic and commercial relations, stuck since 2015 with the expulsion of thousands of Colombians accused by Maduro of being "narcos, prostitutes and paramilitaries" and broken since 2019 with the international challenge against the "son of Chávez", headed by the then Colombian president Iván Duque.

The Agreement for the Protection of Investments was once again on the table, as well as the state of the border between the two countries, a wild territory that is affected by irregular groups, such as the ELN, and state mafias. Maduro dreams of creating an economic zone between Venezuelan Táchira and Colombian Norte de Santander "to guarantee the greatest sum of happiness to both countries."

It so happens that the ELN maintains its sanctuary in Venezuela thanks to its alliance with Chavismo. The ELN have come to patrol with the Venezuelan military forces and have also participated in social control operations of the Bolivarian regime.

The first thing Petro did after leaving the Casona Cultural Aquiles Nazoa, venue of the meeting, was to send a message through his networks to verify that the IMF "supports" his reforms and his economic policy. Presidential advisers know that Maduro is one of their country's most detested political personalities.

And the second was even more picturesque: the security team of the coffee president, after the first push of his boss, carried the bust of Simón Bolívar to take him to Bogotá. The agents loaded it into the trunk of one of the vehicles of the entourage and from there they went to the airport.

The meeting was delayed 72 hours from the scheduled day because of the political storm unleashed in Chavismo, which has cost the position of the oil czar, the powerful Tareck El Aissami. The presence at the meeting of Vice President Delcy and the head of the legislative body, Jorge, confirmed that the Rodriguez brothers are the great winners of the internal war unleashed in the Chavista elite, since they have discarded their great enemy in Maduro's court.

And all this in just seven months since the arrival of the former guerrilla at the Casa de Nariño. So far this month, Maduro has received his main allies in Caracas. On March 5, the tenth anniversary of the death of Hugo Chávez, the Cuban Raúl Castro, the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega and the Bolivian Luis Arce, the three revolutions of America, did so. And now the return of Petro, who also owed a political favor to his friend with the interested deportation of former congresswoman Aida Merlano. The former conservative leader was sent to Colombia amid the great scandal unleashed by the president's eldest son, Nicolás Petro.

A scandal that also has a Venezuelan component, since in the chats published by Petro Jr's ex-girlfriend, the young man claimed that he was behind a great business with the fertilizer giant, Monómeros, a Venezuelan company in Colombia.

The Colombian press has also denounced alleged links of a brother-in-law of Petro with tycoon Alex Saab, prosecuted in the US for money laundering and bribery. Saab, a Colombian national, is considered the main financial operator of the Bolivarian revolution, as well as a figurehead for the Venezuelan president.

Petro does not hesitate a single moment to show his closeness to Maduro, when in parallel he fights hard in the networks with the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, on account of his hard hand in security, in addition to the different diplomatic scuffles with the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte. The leftist president also did not hesitate last week to meet with the lawyer of the coup leader Pedro Castillo.

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  • Colombia
  • America
  • Nicolas Maduro
  • Venezuela
  • Venezuela Elections
  • Chavismo
  • Gustavo Petro