Under Secretary of State for the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said the United States respects Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s decision to resume relations with Venezuela, but would like Venezuelans to be able to choose their leaders as has done in Colombia.
In an interview on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Nichols answered questions from the voice of america on some of the issues that most interest the region, such as the situation in Venezuela, Nicaragua and drug trafficking.
“The countries are sovereign, they can make their diplomatic relations with the countries that they deem convenient. President Petro has been very clear that he wants to change the policy in that regard,” Nichols noted.
For the United States, he added, “the important thing is that the Venezuelan people have the same option to choose their leaders through free and transparent elections, just as Colombians have also had the opportunity.”
Nichols said the US approach is to bring the Venezuelan government and opposition back to the negotiating table in Mexico.
However, it is also doing “everything possible to free” the Americans “wrongly detained on the third floor.”
“Obviously, we have a focus on human rights, the humanitarian situation inside Venezuela, which is an extremely difficult situation for ordinary people, and it is a situation where the Nicolás Maduro regime violates the fundamental rights of all people. the days”.
In this sense, Nichols affirmed that the United States fully supports the UN investigative mission, which has been very important and effective in discovering the real facts that are happening in Venezuela, and reiterated his recent words in the Senate that the United States could lose the patience with Maduro.
The official also reacted to the statements made by the Nicaraguan foreign minister before the UN, who called the United States a liar for denouncing human rights violations and other policies of the Daniel Ortega government.
“The UN, the Human Rights Council, the OAS, the Inter-American Court (of human rights), all have denounced the actions of the Ortega-Murillo regime,” Nichols recalled.
He added that “today, the Ortega Murillo regime stopped the cable television service of in Spanish because they are reporting the events that are happening in this country.”
“That is another action of an anti-democratic regime, which does not respect the fundamental rights of people, neither of expression, nor of the media, nor freedom of worship. What we want to see is a change in policies, the release of political prisoners, respect for the fundamental rights of people in Nicaragua,” said Nichols.
To a question about whether he expected to see more sanctions against the government of Daniel Ortega, he replied: “It could be.”
In general, he believed that the 77th UN General Assembly “has been an opportunity to focus on the problems of ordinary people in our hemisphere: the rise of justice, good jobs, economic growth, climate change.”
“We are focused on this and there is a huge need to support people in their daily lives and we are working towards that.”
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