Venezuela announces efforts to restore peace negotiations in Colombia - MPPRE

Venezuela announces efforts to restore peace negotiations in Colombia

Before the imminent reactivation of the armed conflict between the Colombian government and a group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Jorge Arreaza, announced on Thursday a new phase of consultations with the rest of the guarantor countries of the Peace Agreement signed between the parties in September 2016. In a statement to the press, the diplomat read the statement in which the Venezuelan Executive expresses his deep concern about the recent events in Colombia. “Well known are the calculated and arbitrary decisions taken by Iván Duque which resulted in inconceivable institutional maneuvers that, far from generating trust and legal certainty in the Peace Agreement, motivated the denial of the necessary guarantees agreed upon, openly mocking the commitments acquired, thus protecting different modalities of systematic violation of human rights, including hundreds of selective murders of ex-combatants and social leaders”, the document highlights. A sector of the FARC announced Thursday that they would return to arms after the “betrayal” of the government of Iván Duque to the Peace Agreement. In this context, the Venezuelan government has initiated consultations with the rest of the accompanying countries and guarantors of the peace process to draw up immediate strategies that allow the reestablishment of contacts between the parties in conflict. Unfounded statements On the other hand, Foreign Minister Arreaza expressed his most energetic rejection of the statements issued this Thursday by the President of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque, in an attempt to hide his responsibility for the failure of the peace process in the Neo-Granada nation. Venezuela, under the leadership of the then President Hugo Chávez and more recently of President Nicolás Maduro, has been consistent with the promotion of peace in Colombia and has made enormous efforts to achieve it, despite Bogotá’s hostile policy towards Caracas.
Venezuela rechaza desfachatez del presidente colombiano Ivan Duque