Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has called for international military intervention in Venezuela to remove Nicolas Maduro from power, following his disputed inauguration on Friday for a third consecutive term as president, Agence France-Presse reported.
“Let this scoundrel know that what we are advocating is an international military intervention with the participation of the Venezuelan army to overthrow the dictatorship,“ the former right-wing president said.
In front of dozens of people on the streets of the city of Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, Uribe held a sit-in for the freedom of Colombia and Venezuela in support of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado, the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition.
“We call for international intervention, preferably approved by the UN, to remove these tyrants from power and immediately call free elections“, he insisted, referring to Maduro and his government.
Maduro, who has been in office since 2013, was sworn in in a ceremony that was opposed by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries.
He was quick to respond to Uribe's call. “Alvaro Uribe Velez is a sad paramilitary figure and drug trafficker, murderer and criminal who today calls for military intervention in Venezuela“, Maduro told an “anti-fascist” festival in Caracas.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also criticized the speech of Álvaro Uribe, his long-time political rival.
At the same time, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, which make up the Union for the Advancement of Democracy, categorically rejected Maduro's illegitimate inauguration, the result of an electoral fraud imposed by state terror against the Venezuelan people.
Brazil also did not officially recognize Maduro's victory and requested from the Venezuelan authorities the protocols of the elections produced in July. And Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron called on Maduro to resume dialogue with the opposition.
In the center of Caracas, Maduro's camp organized a parade under extreme security measures.
Maduro himself recalled that the army is on his side and that his third term is an opportunity to consolidate peace in Venezuela.