Before the parliament he controls discussed and approved the permission that Nicolás Maduro legally needs to leave Venezuela for more than five days, the Chavista ruler was already flying to Ankara. His visit to Turkey is billed as the first stop on a Eurasian tour. So far his office has not confirmed other destinations, while the Turkish presidency stated that Maduro would be in that country for only two days. In the National Assembly that controls the regime, it was said that Maduro will visit “several countries of the Eurasian zone”.
The Venezuelan president was received by Turkish authorities and participated in a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Ankara government has been key for the Chavista regime to avoid the international economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.
Both rulers signed alliances for “shared development”. During the event, Erdogan said that both governments are friends and valued the “successful leadership” of Maduro. He reported that binational investment has “doubled” in recent years and announced various exchange and cooperation programs. He announced that he will visit Caracas next July.
Turkey is a regular destination for Venezuelan gold exports, which come from the national coffers and from the mines of the Mining Arc, the so-called “blood gold” that has left violence and human rights violations, according to the United Nations. In Caracas, Turkish products are distributed with relish in the shops.
But Ankara is also a common bridge in relations between Caracas and Moscow, flights between Turkey and Russia have even been detected by planes from the Venezuelan state-owned Conviasa, without commercial operation or passenger route.
In factthe visit of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to Erdogan coincides with the presence in that country of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. And it happens just days after confirming that Venezuelan crude will begin to flow to Europe through the action of the Spanish Repsol and the Italian Eni, which will be able to operate without fear of US sanctions as part of the collection of outstanding debts with the Venezuelan State.
Since 2019 Maduro did not undertake distant visits. In September 2019 he was in Russia. His previous destinations, in 2018, were China and Turkey, where the visit to Erdogan was followed by his trip to Caracas.
Maduro’s trip to Turkey, with the rapprochement with Lavrov, comes at the same time that the rest of Latin America discusses its relations and regional integration with the United States at the Summit of the Americas, convened by President Joe Biden. For the meeting in Los Angeles, the White House excluded the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. For this reason, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he would not attend, while several Caribbean nations also disagreed. The Argentine Alberto Fernández, as president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, is expected to expose criticism during his interventions at the meeting.
Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel, a country that has never been invited to such a summit since its first edition in 1994, said on Wednesday that Washington is trying to separate peoples to dominate them, citing the hero José Martí. “In a few hours we will be able to confirm what will be achieved or what proposals will be made in Los Angeles, beyond the inaugural pageantry and the photo of the host President with those who attend. The publicity show aimed at the internal politics of the United States will not be able to hide the lack of real interest of that Government in addressing the most serious and immediate problems of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean,” added the island’s ruler in a meeting with the “civil society” of that country.
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