Latin American Left Turns on Maduro Before Trump Return

Far-left president of Colombia Gustavo Petro claimed on Tuesday that Venezuela’s fraudulent July 28 presidential election was “a mistake” due to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s “dark handling” of the dubious results.

Petro also placed some of the blame for the sham election on the United States, claiming that an alleged “blockade” of the socialist regime somehow led to a sham election.

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The Colombian leftist president spoke with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo on Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual G20 summit, hosted this week by radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Rio de Janeiro. While Colombia is not a G20 member state, Lula invited the fellow leftist President to participate in the summit as a guest.

Petro discussed the July 28 Venezuelan “election” in which dictator Nicolás Maduro declared “victory” without publishing any actual voter tallies.

The socialist regime refused to publish voter data that can corroborate the claimed victory, leading to widespread condemnation from the international community. The Venezuelan opposition contested the results and published voter tallies from the day of the election that it claimed proved its now-exiled candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro in a landslide.

In the months following the election, Petro and Lula called for Maduro to publish evidence of his claimed “victory.” The Colombian far-left president stated that he now believes the election was a “mistake” due to Maduro’s refusal to publish evidence — but also placed blame on the United States because of an alleged “blockade” of the socialist regime.

“I think the elections [in Venezuela] were a mistake, looking at it today. I was a supporter of holding them, but there is no free vote if there is a blockade [by the United States],” Petro said. 

“Just as the elections are criticized from the point of view of the shady behavior of the Venezuelan government – there was no clarity about what they say, that they won the elections, it was shady because they didn’t show the minutes,” he continued. “Equally, and perhaps more shady, is that a country is forced to hold elections when there is a rifle to its head, which is the economic blockade.”

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever and a former member of the Marxist M19 guerrilla, had Colombia restore ties with its socialist neighbor days after taking office in August 2022.

According to Petro, the authoritarian Maduro regime is the victim of an alleged “blockade” as a result of human right sanctions imposed by the United States during the first administration of President Donald Trump in response to an extensive list of ongoing human rights violations committed by the ruling Venezuelan socialists against their own people.

“They’re telling you that if you don’t vote for the candidate I want, you’ll starve. Free elections are not like that. So let’s achieve the objective, which is difficult today, of holding truly free elections, which imply full guarantees,” Petro said.

“There can be no guarantees if those who vote for the opposition are arrested the next day, under threat of imprisonment. But there must also be a guarantee of a free vote for those who want to vote for the political faction that defends the government,” he continued. “And this freedom means that there will be no blockade in their country.”

Petro claimed to the Brazilian newspaper that the “fall of the blockade” and full guarantees for would-be participants in a “free election” must be achieved in the middle term — but added, “we have to let a little time pass from what has happened.”

In reality, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden awarded Maduro with a generous six-month oil and gas sanctions relief package after representatives from the socialist regime and the Venezuelan opposition signed an agreement that contained vague promises of holding a “free and fair” election in 2024.

The Biden administration’s gift to the socialist dictator failed to entice Maduro into holding a free election in Venezuela. Maduro instead staged the farce in late July.

Petro, alongside Lula and now-former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sought to “mediate” with Maduro in the hopes that the dictator would publish evidence of his claimed electoral “victory.” The actions of the three leftist presidents yielded no meaningful results other than a handful of statements.

The Colombian president reportedly claimed that “it is no longer possible” for a coalition like the one he was part of with Lula and López Obrador to pressure Maduro to publish results.

“The demand for a radical change in government at this time is unrealistic, but I believe that there will come a time when Venezuela will know, that its people will know, that it is by agreeing among themselves that they will rid their country of agents harmful to their society, coming from world powers more interested in oil than anything else,” Petro said.

“From this perspective, I believe that the Colombian side must insist on a political solution, but this implies lifting the blockade and free elections for all those who take part,” he continued.

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo claimed in late October that his country would not recognize Maduro’s victory if he did not present the voter data before January 10, 2025, the day when Maduro’s current — and also illegitimate — six-year term ends.

Celso Amorim, President Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, claimed to O Globo in October that Maduro had personally promised him he would present voter data that could substantiate his victory claims — which he never ended up doing.

Amorim stated that Maduro’s refusal represented a “breach of trust” that ultimately led to Brazil snubbing the Venezuelan regime out of a coveted spot in the BRICS anti-U.S. bloc during the group’s latest annual gathering, hosted last month by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in the city of Kazan.

The Maduro regime responded to Brazil’s actions at the BRICS summit and Colombian Foreign Minister Murillo’s statements by issuing threats against its fellow leftist neighbors. Maduro regime officials accused Lula of allegedly “faking” a head injury he suffered hours before he was slated to travel to the BRICS summit as part of a convoluted plot to block Venezuela’s entry in the group.

Mexico, now under the leftist administration of López Obrador’s successor Claudia Sheinbaum, said that it will now maintain an “impartial” stance on Venezuela.

A report published by the left-wing Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo in October claimed that the Brazilian government has practically “thrown in the towel” regarding Maduro’s fraudulent election. According to the report, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry entered “damage control mode” with regards to Venezuela and as a result, Lula is not expected to attend Maduro’s inauguration on January 10, 2025.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.