Just hours after saying goodbye to Turkish president Recep Erdogan in Caracas, Maduro announced that he was leaving Venezuela for Russia, where he would meet Vladimir Putin.
Maduro made the announcement in the following tweet:
On my way to the Russian Federation where I will have an important working meeting with President Vladimir Putin. We will work on strategic matters [involving[ our countries within the framework of our Bolivarian Diplomacy for Peace [sic] and to build a multi-polar world.
Maduro’s presidential plane–an Airbus A319CJ with registered FAV0001–took off from the Simon Bolivar International Airport at 9:59 PM local time:
The video below shows Maduro arriving in Moscow earlier today:
It is not clear what exactly Maduro will speak to Putin about, or when he plans to return to Venezuela.
Colombia Calls for More Sanctions Against Regime Officials
Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, called today for tougher sanctions against regime officials in order to mount more pressure on Maduro and the elites with whom he rules Venezuela.
At a summit in Quito, Ecuador, Trujillo said:
We have to increase political and diplomatic actions [against the regime]. That’s what we have to do, because our sister nation of Venezuela deserves to live in democracy and freedom.
Trujillo stressed that the way forward for the international community is to place more “targeted” sanctions against “people close to the regime”. He also stressed that these sanctions cannot:
… affect the people of Venezuela as such, [because they must be[ very targeted to named people.
Dozens of regime officials–including Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores–have been targeted in sanctions by the European Union, the United States, and Canada. The sanctions generally prohibit the entry of the named individuals into the issuing countries, and freeze all of their assets in the same.
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