Colombia’s challenger vows hard line on Venezuela

Posted on Wednesday, 06.04.14

Colombia's challenger vows hard line on Venezuela
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

Colombia's opposition candidate Oscar Iván Zuluaga, who polls show is
tied with President Juan Manuel Santos in the June 15 runoff, says one
of his first foreign policy priorities, if elected, would be to demand
enforcement of a regional treaty to restore democracy and fundamental
freedoms in Venezuela.

Zuluaga, a rightist who scored a first-round upset over the center-right
Santos, told me in an interview this week that he would call for the
activation of the 34-country Organization of American States' (OAS)
Democratic Charter to impose regional sanctions on Venezuela's
repressive regime.

"For us, in matters of foreign policy, it is fundamental to defend the
Inter-American Democratic Charter, which establishes commitments to
defend democratic values and institutions," Zuluaga said.

Pro-democracy activists have called in recent years for Latin American
countries to invoke the OAS regional treaty against Venezuela, but have
found virtually no support from the region's governments, in part
because Venezuela is a major oil supplier to many OAS member countries.

Referring specifically to Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro won
a dubious election last year and is facing opposition protests that have
left at least 42 dead in recent weeks, Zuluaga said that Colombia's top
foreign policy priorities should be "combating terrorism and drug
trafficking."

Zuluaga and his political mentor, former President Alvaro Uribe, oppose
Santos' peace talks with Colombia's FARC guerrillas, which have become
the biggest point of contention in the presidential race.

Santos is campaigning on the premise that his peace talks with the FARC
are likely to end Colombia's five-decade-old armed conflict, and argues
that peace would bring about an avalanche of foreign investment that
could drive up the country's economic growth to 7 percent annually.
Zuluaga, in turn, says Santos is giving away the country to the FARC,
and opening the doors to a Cuba- and Venezuela-inspired regime in Colombia.

In the interview, Zuluaga said that "Colombia cannot accept Venezuela's
failure to confront terrorism and drug trafficking embodied by the FARC
terrorists [operating] in Venezuela." He added: "The FARC is killing,
kidnapping and extorting in Colombia, and then they cross the border and
have the protection of the Venezuelan government."

On the recent bloodshed in Venezuela, Zuluaga said it is also "the duty"
of Colombia as a signatory of the Inter-American Democratic Charter to
demand a collective defense of democracy and human rights in Venezuela.

"Clearly, repressing social protests in Venezuela's case has resulted in
the deaths of many young people, more than 35," Zuluaga said. "That's a
very serious thing that violates human rights, and which is not
something that is done by a democratic regime."

Asked whether he supports U.S. congressional proposals — the Obama
administration opposes — to impose sanctions on Venezuelan officials
involved in the killings of student protesters, Zuluaga evaded the
question, saying he would need time to reflect on it. Again and again,
he went back to his premise that the cornerstone of his foreign policy
would be to "strengthen democracy and freedom in our countries."

My opinion: Zuluaga's call for the collective defense of democracy in
Venezuela is welcome news in a region where presidents looked the other
way at that country's scandalous electoral process last year, and where
Maduro's government continues to violate basic human rights without
criticism from its neighbors.

But, frankly, I doubt that Colombia would make a radical foreign policy
shift if Zuluaga wins. Realistically, he would not be able to invoke the
Inter-American Democratic Charter to impose sanctions against Venezuela
because most OAS member countries would not go along with it. Just this
week, at the OAS' annual foreign ministers' meeting in Paraguay, the
group expressed its opposition to the U.S. congressional proposal for
sanctions against Venezuelan officials involved in repression of the
students.

In addition, while Colombia's exports to Venezuela have plummeted in
recent years and Venezuela is not paying its debts to Colombian
exporters, business leaders from Colombian border states would put
significant pressure on Zuluaga not to endanger what is left of the two
countries' bilateral trade. And Zuluaga would also have to be very
careful not to give Maduro an excuse to resurrect the
Colombian-Venezuelan territorial dispute over the Gulf of Venezuela as a
way to unite the Venezuelan people behind him.

Perhaps Zuluaga would be freer to criticize Venezuela and other
anti-democratic regimes than Santos, whose political life depends on the
Cuba-hosted peace negotiations with the FARC, and who has teamed up with
Colombian leftist parties for the upcoming runoff election. But, other
than that, we should not expect a radical foreign policy shift.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/04/4158021/andres-oppenheimer-colombias-challenger.html