{"id":1364965,"date":"2022-03-08T13:31:22","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T18:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1364965"},"modified":"2022-03-08T13:31:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T18:31:26","slug":"colombian-president-ivan-duque-unhappy-with-joe-bidens-outreach-to-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colombian-president-ivan-duque-unhappy-with-joe-bidens-outreach-to-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombian President Ivan Duque Unhappy with Joe Biden\u2019s Outreach to Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcolombian-president-ivan-duque-unhappy-with-joe-bidens-outreach-to-venezuela%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1364965&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\"><span>Colombian President Iv\u00e1n Duque expressed discomfort on Monday with the Biden administration\u2019s outreach to Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, whose gas President Joe Biden reportedly covets to alleviate shortages due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Duque essentially asked Biden to think carefully before breaking ranks with Colombia on containing the odious Maduro regime.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Duque made his remarks to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/colombias-president-says-any-solution-venezuela-must-come-through-elections-2022-03-07\/\"><span>Reuters<\/span><\/a><span> while attending an energy conference in Houston. The Colombian president addressed the surprise delegation to Venezuela sent on very short notice by the Biden administration, allegedly to negotiate the reduction of U.S. sanctions, in exchange for concessions such as Maduro denouncing his patron Russia for invading Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis is a topic that the United States will have to reflect about,\u201d Duque said, tactfully advising Team Biden to pump its brakes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe United States has had a position about this we have shared, which is to call things by their name. And that government is a dictatorship,\u201d Duque said of the Maduro regime.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Duque insisted the path forward for Venezuela lay through free and fair elections, of the sort that would be unlikely to keep Maduro in power. Maduro\u2019s opponents see any chance of overthrowing Maduro slipping away as Biden reportedly prioritizes access to Venezuelan oil.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Venezuelan opposition was stunned and angered by Biden\u2019s outreach to Maduro, conceived and executed without their input. Venezuelan President Juan Guaid\u00f3 was not notified about the Biden team\u2019s visit to Caracas until the last minute. The United States considers Maduro, who was constitutionally removed from power in 2018, an usurper and Guaid\u00f3, sworn in officially in 2019, the legal president of Venezuela.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt is foolish to think that Maduro will quit Russia when a great deal of the corruption funds have been deposited in Russia and when Russia, furthermore, is its greatest ally,\u201d one of Guaid\u00f3\u2019s senior aides told the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/nation-world\/world\/americas\/venezuela\/article259151443.html\"><i><span>Miami Herald<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span>on Monday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis is a mistake. To buy oil from Maduro is the same as buying oil from Putin,\u201d he warned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Guaid\u00f3\u2019s aide noted that Venezuela\u2019s production capacity, which has diminished greatly under Maduro\u2019s inept socialist government, would not be capable of covering Russia\u2019s lost oil output even if all of Venezuela\u2019s oil was sold the United States \u2013 and most of it has already been sold to other customers already, prominently including China.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/international\/596957-war-in-ukraine-threatens-us-interests-in-the-western-hemisphere\"><i><span>The Hill<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span>reported on Sunday that President Duque is due to visit the White House on Thursday, ostensibly \u201ca clear sign that Democrats have fully buried the hatchet after a period of bilateral tension\u201d with Colombia over its support for President Donald Trump \u2013 but the surprise visit to Venezuela may have complicated those plans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It is also possible the Biden White House thinks it can simply string Duque along for a few more months until he loses the May presidential election to left-wing radical Gustavo Petro, who is currently leading by 20 points in the polls. Biden\u2019s advisers might have similarly calculated that Guaid\u00f3 and his opposition are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-01-04\/venezuela-s-guaido-to-keep-opposition-post-in-diminished-role\"><span>fading<\/span><\/a><span> as a serious threat to Maduro\u2019s power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Petro, who lost a close race to Duque in 2018, could turn Colombian policy upside-down in several respects, including the nation\u2019s relationships with both the United States and Russia. Duque immediately and forcefully <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thecitypaperbogota.com\/news\/reactions-from-colombia-on-russias-invasion-of-ukraine\/29736\"><span>denounced<\/span><\/a><span> the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Petro refused to condemn Russia, instead using the crisis to launch a backhanded assault on U.S. policy in Latin America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThere are those who would stupidly like to reproduce the Russian\/Ukrainian conflict in our own region of coexistence: South America. What the constitution orders is not to participate \u2018diplomatically\u2019 in wars, but to seek world peace,\u201d Petro said after the Russian invasion began.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Petro <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-01-14\/colombian-presidential-favorite-seeks-anti-oil-global-alliance\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> in January he wants to phase out the oil and coal industries, which currently account for about half of Colombia\u2019s exports, replacing them with a \u201cknowledge-based, tourism-driven economy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Petro envisioned forming a \u201cgrand coalition\u201d of like-minded ideologues across Latin America that would \u201cspeak much more strongly in a global context to fight against climate change, and to transition Latin America toward economies that are decarbonized, productive and based on knowledge.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This vision, if realized, would greatly increase the value of Venezuelan and Russian oil, especially if Democrats keep the American energy industry paralyzed in accordance with their own climate change agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Security and political analysts told <\/span><i><span>The Hill <\/span><\/i><span>they expected Russian leader Vladimir Putin to quickly and ruthlessly exploit the political and economic openings created by Colombia\u2019s anticipated fall to the hard Left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI think you\u2019re going to see [Russian] efforts and significant impacts particularly in Colombia, which would be the crown jewel, if you could get a government in Colombia that was willing to begin to decouple from the United States in significant ways,\u201d said Douglas Farah of National Defense University\u2019s Center for Complex Operations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis for Putin is a prime target of opportunity where he thinks he can even the score with the United States,\u201d said David Kramer of the George W. Bush Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colombian President Iv\u00e1n Duque expressed discomfort on Monday with the Biden administration\u2019s outreach to Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, whose gas President Joe Biden reportedly covets to alleviate shortages due to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}