On January 11, former Colombian president and far-right leader Álvaro Uribe Vélez, met with several Colombian and Venezuelan sympathizers in the city of Cúcuta, located on the border with Venezuela.
In the aftermath of the far-right Venezuelan opposition’s failure to stop the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela and Edmundo González Urrutia resigning to a parallel swearing-in in the Dominican Republic on January 10, Álvaro Uribe publicly called for a foreign military invasion of Venezuelan territory.
“What we want, what we advocate, is an international military intervention to end the dictatorship,” said the former Colombian president before a cheering crowd. In his speech, he took the opportunity to express his support for González Urrutia and María Corina Machado, who, according to Uribe, are “the universal champions of democracy”.
Furthermore, Uribe openly requested that the Venezuelan Armed Forces disavow the Chavista government “so that it fulfills its function under the Constitution and helps to dislodge the dictatorship”.
Uribe’s statements were sharply condemned by Colombia’s current president Gustavo Petro, who himself has made public statements criticizing the recent electoral process. Petro rejected Uribe’s statements, and affirmed that an armed intervention would imply a violation of Venezuela’s autonomy: “We seek a democratic dialogue in Colombia and Venezuela, we seek the respect of the peoples. We denounce the violation of their fundamental rights both in Colombia and Venezuela or anywhere in the world.”
Maduro fires back at Uribe
After Uribe’s incendiary comments on Venezuela’s border, Nicolás Maduro responded directly to the former Colombian president at the closing of the International Anti-Fascist World Festival, held in Caracas from January 9 to 11: “Álvaro Uribe Vélez, sad paramilitary and drug-trafficking character, murderer, and criminal, today you are asking for military intervention in Venezuela. Coward! You come to the front of the troops. I will wait for you on the battlefield…Show your face, don’t send others [to war]. Down with Uribe! Down with fascism!”
In response, the Colombian Foreign Minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, said he would send a letter of complaint to Caracas for Maduro’s statements. In an interview for Blu Radio, Murillo said that former heads of state must be respected, regardless of their political position. Interestingly, he will not be sending any letter to former president Uribe for his statements seeking a foreign military invasion in Venezuela.
Alba Movements condemned Uribe’s declarations as “criminal” for going “against the fundamental principles of international law”. In a communiqué entitled “We reject the call to war, we defend peace in Our America”, the organization denounced the actions of other political leaders in the region: “We also condemn the support of Patricia Bullrich, current Minister of Security of Argentina in the government of Javier Milei, and of Leopoldo López, Venezuelan opposition leader, for these declarations. It is unacceptable that officials and politicians in Latin America and the Caribbean promote warmongering speeches that only contribute to the destabilization of the region, endangering peace and stability. The history of our continent is marked by the resistance to foreign interventions and coups d’état that have devastated our peoples.”