Source: Sputnik Mundo
What it’s about: On May 24th, 2019—Sputnik reported on Venezuela Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza’s tweets in response to Colombian President Iván Duque’s remarks at the Business Future of the Americas Conference held in Barranquilla, Colombia on May 23rd, 2019.
Why it’s misleading: When questioned about Venezuela’s current situation and possible solutions out of the crisis, President Iván Duque replied (and later tweeted) that “the solution for a democratic transition in the neighboring country [Venezuela] is already visible. The Military Forces in Venezuela are fractured. The challenge that the world has now is to accompany this process and that the citizens, with this pressure, manage the dictator’s exit.”
Venezuela Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza replied (also through a tweet) that while President Duque talks about “democratic transition,” what he really means to do is call for a military coup. According to Arreaza, the Colombian government has failed—in all their strategies of violence and aggression—to follow the orders coming from Washington and will continue to fail.
Jorge Arreaza, and Sputnik’s reporting, fails to address President Duque’s entire remarks during the business conference, where he also highlighted that while the international community must pay close attention to human rights violations “the solution relies in the Venezuelan Constitution, which establishes the ways and responsibilities [to clear a path out of Maduro’s dictatorship].” Colombia, as a founding member of the Grupo de Lima, has expressed its full support to recovering democracy in Venezuela under the constitutional process and the leadership of interim President Juan Guaidó. Colombia has also received millions of Venezuelans migrating into the country, a number reportedly totaling 1.2 million, out of a total of 3.4 million people that have left Venezuela in recent years amid hyperinflation and food and medicine shortages.