Members the Venezuelan government said that Colombia’s offer to sell the socialist nation electricity to help with its current crisis was politically motivated, reported El Espectador.
Venezuela’s Minister of Electrical Energy, Ali Rodriguez, said that he thought it strange for Colombia to have made the offer via media sources, rather than through official diplomatic routes.
He told reporters, “It removes genuineness from the offer.”
“Nothing is going to be solved when negotiations like this are being made through the media … it’s already suspicious when we know that there is a relationship between the Colombian government and the media. It seems to be more of a political operation, trying to put Venezuela on the defensive,” said the minister.
Despite news on Monday that Venezuela’s vice president rejected Colombia’s offer to help the socialist nation’s “electricity emergency” by selling it extra power, a report by news source EFE on Wednesday quotes Rodriguez as saying that “there was no proper offer” by Colombia and that if there were “yes, we would consider it.”
Rodriguez also explained that Colombia would not be able to sell sufficient electricity to cover Venezuela’s desperate need, and that the country is currently considering more official offers made by neighboring Brazil.
Diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela are currently frozen after Colombia signed an agreement with the U.S. that allows the Americans to use military bases and civilian airports for counternarcotics and counterterrorism missions.