Maduro accuses Colombia of sabotaging dialogue

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday accused the Colombian government of trying to derail dialogues in Mexico between government delegates and opposition groups, allies of leader Juan Guaidó. Maduro, who showed the agreements signed by Norwegian Kingdom representatives and both government and opposition delegates, said the talks have started as a success but warned that Colombian President Ivan Duque was trying to sabotage the negotiation process.

"Well, we have made a great effort to set it up, to get it (the negotiations in Mexico) started. I believe that the start has been a success", Maduro said.

"But I must also denounce before Venezuelan men and women the conspiracies against the dialogue".

On Tuesday, on his Twitter account, Duque said that "the return of democracy to Venezuela is fundamental and any agreement that consolidates the dictatorship will be a continental tragedy that will only promote exodus and misery." "Ivan Duque is desperate, mad, isolated and defeated", Maduro said in response.

Maduro also considered that the action of the Colombian Superintendency of Companies to take control of the company Monómeros Colombo Venezolanos S.A. - a subsidiary of Pequiven, the Venezuelan State corporation in charge of producing and commercializing petrochemical products - constitutes an act that seeks to affect dialogue.

The Superintendency, a state entity that oversees commercial companies, "subjected Monómeros to control" with the purpose of "ordering the necessary corrective measures to correct a critical situation of a legal, accounting, economic or administrative nature".

Monómeros is one of the assets of the Venezuelan state, which is under the opposition's control after the sanctions imposed by the United States. The Venezuelan president recently expressed his intention to regain control of the company, Maduro's government broke off relations with Colombia in 2019, arguing that Bogota is pushing plans to destabilize his government and force his overthrow.

Colombia is also among the dozens of countries, including the United States, that recognize Guaidó, who, as head of the now-former National Assembly, proclaimed himself interim president, arguing that the socialist president was reelected in 2018 in fraudulent elections.