Colombia's President Calls for Political Peace in Venezuela

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, pleaded for "political peace in Venezuela" after a meeting in Caracas with his counterpart Nicolás Maduro, one week after calling the "anti-democratic coup" the incapacitation of the main rival of the socialist leader.

"The political peace in Venezuela can also be the armed peace in Colombia and in that there is a terrain to build quickly, urgently," Petro said in a statement to the press at the presidential palace in Miraflores, accompanied by Maduro.

April 1, Petro had qualified as an "anti-democratic coup" the administrative sanctions that prevent opponents, among these the ex-diputada María Corina Machado, favorite in the polls, to be candidates in the presidenciales del 28 de julio.

But the meeting served to restore the cordial tone. "I thank President Gustavo Petro for this good meeting we had," Maduro, who aspires to a third six-year term, said earlier.

Maduro ratified his country's "disposition" to support the negotiations undertaken by Petro's government with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in a process similar to the one that led in 2016 to a peace agreement with the now disbanded forces.

"Venezuela will always be ready, ready and willing to help us, beyond what is possible, to build the peace of Colombia, because the peace of Colombia is the peace of Venezuela," he commented.

Venezuela is scheduled to receive this week a new round of negotiations between the government of Colombia and the ELN.

In a joint statement, the mandates reaffirmed "the mutual commitment to support peace, political, social and economic stability in both countries, especially the role inherent in Venezuela as a guarantor of the dialogue process" between the Colombian government and the ELN.

The document adds that they agreed to "continue advancing" in "joint investments in gas and petroleum, as well as the impetus of clean energy projects".