Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos, has spoken again about the controversial constituent assembly in Venezuela. Santos, who has heavily criticized the plans in recent weeks, mentioned that a break in diplomatic relations with Venezuela might happen.
Santos has been one of the biggest critics of Venezuela’s constituent assembly, which began on Friday. The president mentioned hours before the elections took place that Colombia would not recognize the results. The elections happened one week ago and have been involved in controversy since the results were announced. The opposition says less than three million people voted while CNE announced that nearly nine million people voted in the elections. The results led to the opposition calling fraud and the company behind the voting machines recently said that the vote total may have been inflated by at least one million.
Santos latest comments come just days after the constituent assembly began. The president warned on Monday that he doesn’t rule out breaking diplomatic relations with Venezuela if the constituent assembly continues. Several countries warned president Maduro about the constituent assembly before the elections. The Venezuelan government went ahead with its plans and held the elections. Peru and Argentina have also criticized the decision by the Venezuelan government. The US government warned of sanctions if the elections went ahead. Hours after the elections, sanctions against president Maduro were announced. The sanctions are said to be just the beginning of more coming. It’s been rumored in the last few weeks that other sanctions might target Venezuelan’s oil sector. The US sanctioned more than ten Venezuelan government officials before the elections last month.
It is the second time that Santos speaks about the constituent assembly since the elections. The comments by the president came during an interview with the Caracol channel. Santos also said during the interview that these type of decisions should be made together with the other presidents in the region.
Santos also mentioned that this decision would bring more problems than benefits. The two presidents have criticized each other in the past. Santos also revealed that he had not spoken to Maduro since March.
