Bogota
\nNicolas Maduro\u2019s days as President of crisis-ravaged Venezuela are numbered, his outgoing Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos has said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see it happening in the near future,\u201d said Santos, pointing to the International Monetary Fund\u2019s latest projection that Venezuela\u2019s inflation will hit one million per cent this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cA country with the level of inflation that Venezuela has… that regime has to fall.\u201d Relations between the two heads of state have been tense for years with Maduro describing Colombia as a US \u201clackey\u201d and Santos predicting imminent \u201cregime change\u201d in Venezuela ahead of presidential elections in May, won by Maduro but that were boycotted by the opposition.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have flooded into Colombia as they flee food and medicine shortages, as well as failing public services in their crisis-torn country.<\/p>\n
Venezuela has been gripped by a four-year long recession which Maduro blames on opposition \u201csabotage.\u201d He also disputed a claim by a group of leading Venezuelan universities that put extreme poverty in the country at 61 per cent. Maduro says it\u2019s only 4.4 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is in a state of denial,\u201d Santos said of Maduro. \u201cHe is irrational because he says no, there is no crisis there and he does not need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year Colombia repeatedly accused Venezuelan troops of territorial incursions while Santos has also been angered that Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas have found shelter in socialist Venezuela.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a doubt, some ELN commanders are in Venezuela, we\u2019ve known that for a long time,\u201d said Santos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve killed many of their leaders and regional chiefs there.\u201d Tensions between the two countries are hardly likely to ease once Santos leaves office next week, with hard-right president-elect Ivan Duque set to take over.<\/p>\n
As well as stoking unease across the border, Duque\u2019s ascendancy could have repercussions for the peace accord Santos signed with FARC rebels.<\/p>\n
That deal may have won Santos the Nobel Peace Prize but proved a poisoned chalice politically as his domestic popularity plummeted.<\/p>\n
Santos believes it was worth it, though, not for himself, but for the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy legacy will defend itself, you can see the results,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is peace, the FARC is a political party, it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the Colombian people that will defend peace because it\u2019s not my peace, nor that of my government, but of all Colombians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the greatest gift that any society can have, Colombians have to and will defend peace.\u201d Following a half-century of armed conflict, FARC guerrillas signed a disarmament deal with the government in December 2016 and were transformed into a political party with 10 seats reserved in the senate.<\/p>\n
Although the FARC laid down its arms, barring a few dissidents, the ELN has continued its own struggle, although Cuban-hosted peace negotiations are ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re delivering, and what all the international organizations say, is that it\u2019s a very complete peace, very deep. This agreement with FARC has no precedent in any other country,\u201d said Santos.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we\u2019re continuing to negotiate with the ELN, we\u2019re making a lot of progress, we\u2019ll see if we can sign a ceasefire before August 7, even if it\u2019s temporary and a framework agreement.\u201d August 7 is the day Santos hands over the presidency to Duque, who upon his election in June vowed to make \u201ccorrections\u201d to the peace deal, which he criticized for being too lenient on former rebels.<\/p>\n
Santos, though, sees no reason to fear that Duque will undo his hard-won achievements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe country is already too polarized. President-elect Duque told me himself in this very (presidential) palace: \u2018Look, I\u2019m going to continue with the policies I think are working, correct those that aren\u2019t working and I\u2019ll introduce some of my own projects and initiatives. I won\u2019t govern with a rearview mirror.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bogota Nicolas Maduro\u2019s days as President of crisis-ravaged Venezuela are numbered, his outgoing Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos has said. \u201cI can see it happening in the near future,\u201d said Santos, pointing to the International Monetary Fund\u2019s latest projection that Venezuela\u2019s inflation will hit one million per cent this year. \u201cA country with the level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37928,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37926\/revisions\/37928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}