The president of Venezuela sent a video, which was shown at the end of the first day of the meeting. “We decided not to fall for the provocations,” he said.
For iProfessional
01/24/2023 – 3:45 p.m.
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, sent a video to explain the reasons for his absence at the VII CELAC Summit. The images were shown this Tuesday at the end of the first day, while the Sheraton Hotel -venue of the meeting- remains surrounded by Venezuelan émigrés, Cubans and Nicaraguans who reject the president’s invitation to Alberto Fernández to the Venezuelan head of state, as well as Miguel Díaz Canel and Daniel Ortega.
Why didn’t Maduro travel to Argentina?
“I would have liked to be physically at the site of the events, as we have always been. Reasons beyond our control, the conspiracies, threats, permanent persecutions and ambushes made me make the most correct and just decision, not to fall for the provocations that they tried to tarnish this very special moment for Latin America and the Caribbean,” Maduro explained in a short video.
This Monday, the Venezuelan government had already issued a statement accusing the existence of “a plan elaborated within the neo-fascist right whose objective is to carry out a series of attacks against the delegation”.
The Venezuelan president’s statements come after the Argentine opposition, led by Patricia Bullrich, filed a complaint and an immediate arrest warrant before the arrival of Hugo Chávez’s successor. “We have raised all the legal options so that Maduro is arrested for the reasons he has for drug trafficking,” explained the president of the Pro.
He also recalled that Maduro has an international arrest warrant from the DEA (United States Drug Control Administration) and He offers $15 million as a reward.
The former Minister of Security accompanied one of the numerous mobilizations that former citizens of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua staged to repudiate Alberto Fernández’s invitation to the presidents of these three Latin American states. “Genocides”, “Criminals” and “Drug Traffickers” were some of the expressions that were heard in Retiro.
“I would have wanted to be at the site of the events, as we have always been” Nicolás Maduro explained his absence at the Celac Summit and said that he did not want to “fall into the provocations that tried to stain” the conference.https://t.co/UgSv4IWAKt pic.twitter.com/oMQpfGxWtc
– Short ???? (@somoscorta) January 24, 2023
The president of Mexico explained his absence and supported Maduro
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) – another of the strong absences in Celac this year – explained that he missed the summit due to his “commitments”. “There is a lot of speculation as to why I didn’t go, I have commitments in the country, Well (if I went to Argentina) it was traveling all day yesterday, being here today, returning tomorrow, arriving here on Thursday, and I have work,” he declared at his daily press conference.
After renewing its support for the Argentine president and questioning the role of former president Mauricio Macri, AMLO supported the absence of Nicolás Maduro in Buenos Aires. “He did very well,” he said. And he added that in this way he avoids “the media trap and provocations” of the “conservative” Argentine media.
“President Maduro’s position of not attending was also prudent, because the right, the very belligerent conservatism of Argentina, they had prepared a media show, And now, as the late Juan Gabriel would say: but what a need,” he said.
