Petro, the first left-wing president of Colombia, predicted a global crisis due to the “stagnation” of activity and what he called the “gas war” in Europe, after the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“The United States is practically ruining all the economies of the world”, he launched during a meeting with authorities and communities in the town of Turbo (northwest).

According to Petro, the countries are threatened by recession and “the high interest rate” set by the US Federal Reserve (FED), which attracts “capital from South American countries.”

“In the United States, decisions are made to protect themselves, sometimes without thinking about what will happen through their measures. The economy of Latin American nations is being emptied (…) Our currencies are all falling, not just the Colombian peso”, he added.

Inflation is hitting the economies of the world, mainly those of poor and developing countries.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve (FED) has increased the reference rates to face the rise in prices in a range between 3-3.25%.

As a result, the Colombian debt in dollars could skyrocket and at the same time a capital flight could take place due to the prospect of investors of a higher profit.

In Colombia, the green ticket is quoted at 4,700 pesos per dollar, a figure never seen before. So far this year, the Colombian currency has depreciated by 16% against the dollar, according to estimates by several analysts.

President Petro called on the governments of the region to “establish a common agenda to defend Latin America from the global crisis that is coming.”

(Taken from El Comercio)

“Personally, in this meeting that just took place, I said that what had happened with Cuba is an injustice,” Petro said in the meeting with the head of US diplomacy, who is visiting Colombia.

A Colombian government asked Cuba to host negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Petro recalled.

He recalled that an oversight body from the Barack Obama administration participated in the talks with the FARC and then another Colombian government asked the Donald Trump government to declare Cuba a country that encourages terrorist activities for having the negotiating delegation of peace, “and that is an injustice,” Petro emphasized.

“Therefore, in my opinion, it does not depend on us, it must be corrected,” Petro stressed at the press conference at the Casa de Nariño, seat of the Colombian presidency.

He explained that his government has recovered the role of guarantor countries of the processes that are now beginning for Norway, Cuba, Venezuela and – he stressed – there are other nations such as Spain that have requested that same status.

For his part, Blinken on this issue said that “the United States has clear criteria, laws and requirements and will continue to consider and see if Cuba will continue to have such a designation.”

A few days after the end of his term, the Donald Trump government included Cuba on the questionable list and the then peace commissioner Miguel Ceballos assured that it was an accolade from the US government to the Colombian.

For its inclusion, the false argument was used of the refusal of the Cuban government (guarantor of the peace dialogue between the ELN and the Colombian State) to a request from Iván Duque, who demanded the extradition of the ELN negotiating leaders who were in La Havana after an attack on a police academy in Bogotá.

The former president made the demand, despite knowing the existence of protocols designed and agreed by the parties with strict attention to the provisions of international law for the resolution of internal armed conflicts, including the protocol for the event of the breakdown of the talks.

The concert of voices to exclude Cuba from that arbitrary list is growing in Colombia and today more than 100 well-known intellectuals and academics demanded the removal of Cuba from that list, who join the demand of more than 80 congressmen and hundreds of women, among others.

Also, some 300 faith-based organizations, churches and believers from 23 countries asked Blinken to remove Cuba from the list “of countries that sponsor terrorism.”

Yesterday, the Colombian Foreign Minister, Ávaro Leyva, told a local media outlet that the previous administration ignored this protocol against all international standards.

“We are reviving it, there is the chapter on how to return them, how to bring them, how to take them, how to restart those conversations within a legal framework that implies the suspension of legal action,” he clarified.

“You cannot talk to a person seeking peace and at the same time request his extradition, it would be a contradiction and rather it would be an alternate declaration of war,” the minister assured.

(With information from Prensa Latina)

Representatives of the Colombian government and members of the so-called Central General Staff of the extinct FARC-EP dissidents, held an exploratory meeting to assess the return to peace talks.

In a joint statement they detailed that the exploratory meeting took place in the department of Caquetá with the accompaniment of the representative of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia and another from the Norwegian government.

According to the document, they expressed the willingness and need for these dialogues to be set by a bilateral ceasefire, whose execution must be verified.

The High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, explained at the meeting the concept of President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace policy, its constitutional and legal framework, and its territorial approach, the criteria for building trust, as well as the dialogue presuppositions.

“A central issue in the government’s response to Total Peace is the binding substantial citizen demands and the rights that must be guaranteed to transition to the Social and Environmental State of Law,” the text states.

For their part, the delegates of the insurgency presented their initial proposals to advance this objective and put an end to the internal conflict in the country. Among them, they pointed out that Total Peace for the FARC EP means the eradication of the causes that generate the social and armed conflict.

They determined in the meeting that a first step for a second rapprochement should be the declaration, as soon as possible, of a bilateral ceasefire agreed by the parties, thus avoiding more pain in the Colombian family and added that for the start of dialogue they will be consulted. all its structures.

Finally, they stressed the importance of the participation of neutral third parties as a guarantee in the dialogues.

The parties agreed to sign a confidential protocol to guarantee a meeting of the commanders of the Central General Staff of the FARC-EP.

“We believe that, as never before, in the history of our country, the conditions are being created to leave decades of fratricidal violence behind forever,” concluded the statement signed by High Commissioner Danilo Rueda and members of the guerrilla: Calarcá Córdoba , Alonso 45, Ermes Tovar and Erika Castro.

“The dialogue begins,” Petro wrote on his Twitter profile, a phrase that he accompanied with two photos and that attest to the meeting of the delegations to advance the Total Peace policy, a transversal axis to all his government programs to achieve change. In colombia.

(With information from Prensa Latina)

However, this position of honoring its word and its status as a guarantor country has generated very serious problems for Havana, caused by the disloyalty of the Duque government and by the hatred of Trump and his friends, who did not rest until they managed to get Cuba was included again in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, from which the Obama administration had removed it in 2015.

This inclusion has brought serious survival problems to the inhabitants of the island, derived from the inhumane economic restrictions that result from the condition of being considered “sponsors of terrorism”.

All of this has generated strong migratory pressure from many Cubans seeking to leave, especially to the United States, which could turn that country into a boomerang.

More than 20 months have passed since Biden took office and stated that his government was going to review that status as a “sponsor of terrorism” country, with which Cuba has been unfairly classified since when the Trump government, with only a few days left to After finishing his administration, he included it in that macabre list with the argument that giving shelter to the ELN was proof that it was sponsoring terrorists.

But since then, Biden has done little to ease the situation for the Cubans. And nothing that he has moved to remove Cuba from the list.

Now, when the Petro government has asked that of Havana to continue hosting the talks with the ELN and other countries have offered to collaborate with the process, the Biden government does not have a single argument for not taking the steps necessary in order to immediately remove Cuba from the gloomy list.

Already the pressure for Biden to act in this regard is growing. In fact, more than 10,000 people have signed an open letter addressed to President Biden asking him to reverse the measure imposed by Trump and restore Obama’s policy towards the island.

“His policies with respect to Cuba, which have been more aligned with those of Trump than with those of Obama, are affecting the well-being of the Cuban people and go against the will of the majority of Americans. We urge – the letter adds – that you immediately make an important change in policy and remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism”.

The Colombian foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva Durán, had also made the same request when, a few days after taking office, he traveled to Havana to resume talks with the ELN.

So it is time for President Biden to stop dwelling on the matter and act.

Two great friends left this week: former minister Jaime García Parra, whom she loved since she was a child, and doctor Rafael Carrillo, an extraordinary human being. Peace in the graves of him. And a very close hug for his families.

The Colombian-Venezuelan border was closed to vehicular traffic since 2015, a policy maintained and reinforced by former Colombian President Iván Duque since 2018.

According to the Venezuelan head of state, “we are taking firm steps for a progressive, productive and happy opening of the 2,229 kilometers of border with Colombia.”

Maduro celebrated that for Venezuela, what he called “a gigantic market of 45 million inhabitants” will be opened in Colombia, to which Caracas, in full economic recovery, will be able to present its export offer that has grown, he said.

According to the Venezuelan president, Colombia “has high-quality products that Venezuela has always bought, distributed and consumed, and now, four years later, we are still producing, and we have a very good export offer for the people of Colombia.”

Venezuela and Colombia advance towards the restitution of commercial exchange

“We are going to the progressive, productive and happy opening of the 2,229 kilometers of border with Colombia. We are working in technical commissions to guarantee mobility.” detailed the @NicolasMaduro pic.twitter.com/olS4eEfff7

– Presidential Press (@PresidentialVen) August 31, 2022

The Venezuelan president invited investors from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia to come and work the land: “We are going to make good agreements and produce food to export to Colombia, to the Middle East.”

In addition, the new Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, confirmed that the petrochemical company Monómeros, which is owned by Venezuela and is located in Barranquilla, Colombia, will be managed by the board of directors appointed by President Nicolás Maduro, after more than three years controlled by a former opposition deputy.

According to the Bogotá ambassador, Nicolás Maduro is the president recognized by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, unlike his predecessor, Iván Duque, who identified another person.

(With information from Telesur)