Venezuela’s Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro said on Tuesday, July 27 that Venezuela will present a proposal at the Summit of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to be held in Quito, Ecuador to implement a plan that contributes to peace in Colombia and end the war in that country.
Maduro said during a television interview that after discussing the constant Colombian aggressions and attacks against the Venezuelan government with leaders from different Latin American countries, a proposal for a peace agreement was formulated.
“We have seen perspective of the process that UNASUR will present on Thursday in Quito, where Venezuela, after having considered different South American proposals, views and ideas, will bring forward a peace agreement to tackle a core problem: the Colombian war,” Maduro said.
In this respect, the minister said that Colombian governments, historically supported by the U.S. with military supplies and strategies, “have brought significantly harmful and detrimental social and political consequences into the region.”
He added that Venezuela has been a victim of the Colombian war for over 60 years. “Particularly in the last years, Venezuela has received different attacks when it’s about a war that originated in Colombia, a war with Colombian roots, a war whose only solution is not only to overcome the circumstances that come up every certain time, but finding a deeper solution,” said the minister.
“In this sense, we have passed on the message that President Hugo Chávez has directly sent to South American governments in order to advance in the peace process,” Maduro stated.
He explained that during his tour across Latin America, he first visited Brazil, where “we held a long and fruitful meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and further on with President Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva, discussing different issues of general concern regarding the aggressions and attacks that the Colombian government has carried out against Venezuela.”
“Likewise, almost at midnight, we held a very important meeting with Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, his foreign minister and other government officials. We exchanged information and brought into discussion the peace instruments that must exist in South America so as to overcome the Colombian conflict,” he said.
The Venezuelan minister said that he later went to Uruguay, where he met with President José Mujica and his Minister of Foreign Affairs. “Along with Mujica’s experience and wisdom, we talked about the last 50 years of history of the continent.”
After finishing his visit in Montevideo, he went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he held important meetings with UNASUR’s Secretary General Néstor Kirchner and President Cristina Fernández.
Maduro also visited Chile on Tuesday and Peru on Wednesday to meet his Chilean and Peruvian counterparts Alfredo Moreno and José Antonio Belaúnde. The minister is currently visiting Bolivia and will end his tour in Ecuador where he will attend the UNASUR summit.
AVN/Press and Communications Office of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S. / July 28, 2010
