Name? Gustavo Petro
Westphalian identity? Colombian
Age? 62
Why is he in the news? Colombian president Gustavo Petro was elected earlier this year, and vowed to resume diplomatic and commercial Colombian relations with their neighbour Venezuela. Relations had been broken for three years under the leadership and protest of former president Iván Duque. Today, those relations were fully restored with the resumption of commercial activities across the land border.
Why do we care? Venezuela has spent the last decade as an international pariah with the unconstitutional leadership of Maduro. They have been under a strict sanctions regime from the US, which was supported in large part by Colombia, the US’ most important South American ally. Now, Petro is breaking with this policy, warming his relations with Maduro, in a regional revival of left-wing alliances.
Why should you care? Maduro could be the key to negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) on their shared border, as well as the international drug trade problem. Furthermore, interamerican judicial institutions would operate in Venezuela again. In exchange, Maduro wants to sell oil and gas to Colombia, which conflicts with Petro’s staunch environmental stances. You should care 5/10
Who else cares? US President Joe Biden. The US is Colombia’s most powerful and important ally. In light of the war in Ukraine, the US is also interested in diversifying the world’s energy portfolio. Venezuela, with the world’s largest oil reserves, could be the answer to this problem, for which the US would be willing to forget their undemocratic misgivings. More than that, Biden hopes that Petro could bring Maduro back to the negotiating table in Mexico vis-a-vis the Venezuelan opposition and bring about democratic elections in 2024. This is also a break from Trump’s and Duque’s more hawkish approach to Maduro.
Any further comments? Relations had originally been broken in 2019 when Venezuelan opposition members had tried to cross the ground border from Colombia with trucks full of food and medicine.
