Just over 24 hours after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan leader María Corina Machado was criticized by President Gustavo Petro.
The Colombian president, who sent a confusing congratulatory message to Machado on Friday when she was notified of the award by the opponent of Nicolás Maduro's regime, launched harsh criticism against Machado on Saturday, October 11, citing a letter from December 2018 in which she asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help in taking action to end the Venezuelan regime. The letter was also addressed to the then president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri.
"What I don't understand and I want you to explain to me is: Why are you asking for help from a criminal against humanity, with an international arrest warrant, to bring democracy to Venezuela? What does it mean that you seek support from the only Latin American president who supported genocide and the genocidaire? What does it mean that the people of Norway, who give out this award, encourage this type of global alliance that could only be one of barbarism and war, and not peace? In these years of genocide, against which I have fought, what I have seen is that the most extreme right-wing political parties in the world, those who are in tune with Hitler, have become the only allies of genocide and Netanyahu," the president wrote on his X account.
President Petro has been criticized for his closeness to Nicolás Maduro's regime. Colombia is one of the few countries in the world that has not reported fraud in the elections in that country, in which Maduro supposedly defeated Edmundo González, the opposition candidate after the regime disqualified María Corina Machado from participating in the elections. Furthermore, Ambassador Milton Rengifo's presence at Maduro's inauguration was seen as recognition of the regime.
President Petro questions military offensive in the Caribbean
The president also asked"how a genocidal maniac can help make peace in Venezuela" and questioned the military offensive in the Caribbean ordered by then-US President Donald Trump, during which vessels transporting drugs from Venezuela to North America were allegedly bombed.
"Even under the excuse of cocaine trafficking—which, according to all international investigations into the drug market, only marginally passes through your country and is not yet produced there—this excuse has been used to militarily invade the Caribbean, and the same missiles that fell on Gaza have been launched, but which are now also falling on boats carrying Caribbean people inside, perhaps greedy but poor, whom they have murdered without asking their names or what they were carrying on the boats. Among those murdered in the Caribbean are several Venezuelans and Colombians," said President Petro.
Gustavo Petro to María Corina:"Getting Netanyahu to take action for Venezuela won't help the people."
"I would ask if it wouldn't be better to support a comprehensive Caribbean agreement to definitively halt the transit of illegal drugs through there, within international law, which does not permit the disproportionate use of force and guarantees the national sovereignty of the countries of the great homeland of Bolívar and Martí; the homeland of the great Garifuna culture, made up of Africans who preferred to throw themselves from the Spanish, French, and English ships that brought them by force to enslave them. Thousands and thousands drowned, but they became free at sea. Isn't a Caribbean at peace better, without murders and with a strong anti-drug policy, without abuse of power?" the Colombian president added.
"With all due respect, it is not by bringing Netanyahu into action for Venezuela that the Venezuelan people will be helped. That can only mean genocide against the people and illegal armed and international aggression against Venezuela," the president concluded his extensive post.
However, in December 2018, when María Corina Machado requested help from the Israeli Prime Minister, the conflict in Gaza that today has Netanyahu with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity had not escalated.
