Residents living at Colombia-Venezuela border city Cucuta called for peaceful talks to solve Venezuela crisis instead of external interference on Tuesday.
As the crisis in Venezuela keeps simmering, residents of Cucuta, a city fewer than 20 km from the border with Venezuela in northeast Columbia, are concerned about their life and oppose external interference into Venezuela politics.
“For me, the best way is through talks, not external interference, because that will impact Colombia,” said a Cucuta resident.
“It is essential to have talks with President Maduro as it relates to border issue. That is important to both countries,” said another resident of Cucuta.
Venezuela had cut ties with Colombia and partially closed its border between the two countries as Colombia tried to support Venezuela’s opposition and military defectors. It is said that the United States has so far delivered hundreds of tons of supplies to Cucuta, while constantly putting pressure on Venezuela to accept “humanitarian aid.”
Earlier on Monday, the Lima Group issued a joint statement at a meeting in Bogota, calling for peaceful solutions for the conflict. They called for the resignation of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the holding of new presidential elections.
Founded by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Paraguay in 2017, the Lima Group is a hemispheric bloc of countries mostly aligned with Washington, which is backing the Venezuelan opposition’s push to unseat Maduro.
