In a recent and controversial statement through his social networks, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, established a forceful position on the nature of Nicolás Maduro’s regime. The president was emphatic in pointing out the lack of democratic freedoms in the neighboring country, although he questioned the accusations of international justice.
“He is a dictator for concentrating powers”

Petro did not hesitate to use the word “dictator” to describe Nicolás Maduro, justifying this statement in the current political structure of Venezuela:

“Maduro is a dictator for concentrating powers, there is no evidence in Colombia that he is a drug trafficker. That is the US narrative.”

With this phrase, the Colombian president separates the institutional crisis and authoritarianism in Venezuela from the accusations of drug trafficking, which he described as a media and judicial construction coming from the United States.
Attacks on the regional right

In the same statement, Petro took the opportunity to launch a harsh criticism against the recently elected José Antonio Kast in Chile, linking his lineage and beliefs with Nazism.

He stated that Kast is a “believer in the Nazis” and maintained that the Chilean leader’s family did not flee from Hitler, but from the “defeat of Hitler,” suggesting that his arrival in South America was linked to the fall of the Nazi regime and not to persecution.

This message marks a turning point in Petro’s language towards Venezuela, openly acknowledging the dictatorship, while at the same time deepening the diplomatic rift with the new right-wing Chilean government.

Petro recognizes Maduro as Dictator