Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday offered to mediate in an increasingly violent political crisis in neighboring Venezuela.
On Tuesday, a mob of supporters of the increasingly authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro injured several law makers during a violent incursion into the country’s General Assembly building.
The country’s legislative branch has fallen under control of the opposition, that is radically opposed to Maduro’s communist-like “Bolivarian revolution” that seeks strict state control over major industries like oil.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
In spite of having successfully mediating peace between the State and the country’s largest Marxist guerrilla group, Santos has received major hostility from his increasingly erratic Venezuelan counterpart in spite of his calls for moderation.
At the same time, both countries have tried to enforce border control, but hardly harmonious.
Colombia and Venezuela at odds again, this time about tanks on the border
Colombia and Venezuela call each other sister states — having both been liberated from Spain by the same General Simon Bolivar — but have had rocky relations well before late President Hugo Chavez began the “Bolivarian Revolution in the early 2000s.
While Santos had tried to refrain from further agitating Maduro for years, the amplifying crisis in the neighboring countries has caused a major increase in migration from Venezuela, where millions live with dual nationality.
Together with other countries, Santos had already urged for negotiations between the country’s government and opposition while speaking in the coastal city of Cartagena.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
Santos thanked the neighboring country for having helped negotiate an end to the country’s 52-year-old armed conflict with the FARC, urging Venezuela’s opposing sides to follow the do the same with there.
“If we can contribute our grain of sand we will,” Santos said in a careful invitation to mediate.
The current Venezuelan situation is not just a government concern, but also one of many Colombians who have family living across the border.
Additionally, the crisis is affecting the country’s joint border regions that in some parts are largely lawless with guerrillas, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers occupying the spaces left vacant by either state.
Trade between the two countries has virtually come to a standstill as extreme inflation in Venezuela and strict currency controls imposed by the government have severely cut formal trade ties.